Who Am I?
For millennia, mystical teachings have told us that consciousness condenses to form the physical world, just as steam condenses to form water and ice. In the last century, a similar idea has been embraced by a number of scientists. Indeed, there are some parallels between mystical teachings, which are based upon spiritual experience, and modern science, which is based upon intuition and reasoning.
Some mystical teachings tell us that one consciousness is the building block, or source, of the universe and that it is infinitely intelligent. This consciousness is often referred to as “God” (or the equivalent in other spiritual and religious traditions) and thus everything is part of God. In quantum physics, it is believed that all matter comes from the quantum field and that everything is an expression of the field.
Mystics hold that all matter condenses from the field of infinite intelligence and quantum physics holds that all matter appears at points where the quantum field is most intense.
Since we are conscious beings, I believe that an accurate description of reality must include consciousness; therefore, I resonate more with the mystical teachings, although I also embrace the theories of quantum physics, since both seem to look at the same thing in different ways.
Spiritual Amnesia
If all things have their source in the field of infinite intelligence, it may be assumed that there are no accidents and that every form appears and performs exactly as it should. So we are all perfect, all part of the whole. But somehow in the process of condensation we lose the awareness of our true nature. It is like a droplet condensing out of an ocean of conscious intelligence, and in noticing that it has become a droplet, forgetting that it was once, and is still, part of the ocean.
We thus learn to define ourselves purely in terms of our physical form. You might liken it to an iceberg floating upon the surface of the ocean. Our conscious awareness represents the tip of the iceberg, but the greater part of us — call it “the Higher Self” — is beneath the surface. And since all we see is the tip of the iceberg, we assume that our consciousness is merely part of our physical selves — the product of the interaction of different chemicals in the brain.
Some teachers hold that our purpose in life is to regain full awareness of our true nature, a state called enlightenment. Each situation in life provides us with an opportunity to do this. Our experiences also reflect our degree of enlightenment, or level of consciousness, as it’s often called. An unenlightened person might see the loss of a personal possession, for instance, precisely as a loss and might even assume that it is the result of theft, but an enlightened person might see the same situation as part of a cosmic energy pattern unfolding and experience it as a blessing. Life, then, is a journey of experiences leading us to enlightenment. We are walking a path toward realizing that we are the infinite intelligence, though suffering from a little amnesia.
This temporary state of amnesia is why we appear to lack the ability to heal ourselves of any illness or to make positive changes in our lives. We do not lack this ability. It is probably even “encoded” in our DNA as sets of genes. But we believe we are limited, so we perform in accordance with the limits we believe in.
At present, “healing” or “transformational” genes undoubtedly exist but are switched off in most people. But it is likely that such genes merely await our genuine recognition of who we really are, at which time they may switch on.
Even now, we are personally creating our bodies every day. Old cells die all the time and new ones are born. In this way, your entire body is constantly being renewed under your direction.
Clearly this is not conscious. The part that is doing this is the main body of the iceberg – the Higher Self. Therefore, your Higher Self intended to create your body just the way it is. And the intention to create it, and how it should look and work, would have produced ripples throughout the web. It may have condensed as sets of genes in your DNA. So DNA might be much more than an inherited genetic code. It probably encodes the intention of the Higher Self. And, as genes are expressed through life, that intention materializes as the physical body.
We know, however, that we influence some of our genes through our daily thoughts, so we are never stuck with the decision our Higher Self once made for us. We have the freedom to make any changes that we choose to make, in accordance with what we believe is possible, of course. Our intentions can be very powerful — they even affect the creation of matter.
Creating Reality
Intentions can influence the creation process in two ways. On the one hand, they produce neuropeptides, as we learned in Chapter 2, which circulate around the body and fit into receptors, where they bring about changes, including switching genes on and off. But at a deeper level, they influence the point at which consciousness condenses into subatomic particles.
Think of it like painting a picture. On one level the paint mixes to produce the colors that give the image of, say, a tree, but at a deeper level you imagined the tree in your mind and directed the brush. The end result is the same.
In life, say you wanted to visualize the healing of a damaged organ. The organ, like the entire body, is constantly being regenerated. When you make new healthy images through visualization, your thoughts and feelings produce neuropeptides that switch some internal processes on and off so that your body begins to evolve into the picture you visualized. And on the deeper level, your intentions influence the creation process, sending pictures to the place and moment when vibrations become particles, so influencing the nature of the particles.
In these ways, many new cells are born according to the healthy images (the blueprint) you modeled them on. The more you visualize new healthy cells, the more new healthy cells are created. This is why visualization is known to have produced miracles.
Where a damaged organ remains damaged for several weeks, new cells will have completely replaced old ones, yet the new ones will have adopted a damaged state. Why? Perhaps because you believed the organ was damaged. This belief, and the mental images and feelings associated with it, influenced the creation of new cells so that they became perfect copies of the old ones.
No one wants to maintain an illness, of course, but it is not easy to switch off a belief in it. Such beliefs are very powerful because illness is a daily reality for many people and therefore is a very deeply ingrained worldwide belief. To create healing, miracles requires the ability to overturn, or transcend, this belief. There are very few people on the planet who have been able to do this, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all do it. We all have the capacity to overturn beliefs in disease and to form healthy beliefs, just as we can get around a belief that we can’t, say, jump over a rock on a path and then jump over it. In the end, the stronger belief wins. If a belief in health is stronger than a belief in illness then the illness will disappear, and vice versa.
And just as conditions in our bodies respond to our thoughts and feelings, so our lives usually quite accurately reflect the state of our minds. In this way we actually create our own reality. First, our intentions open us to receive intuitions that guide some of the things that we think, say, do, and even notice around us. And second, our thoughts and emotions send out signals, which we know vibrate the web, so they register in people’s minds (unconsciously) and in their bodies. Then what happens is that people who happen to have the knowledge, connections, and resources to make our thoughts real are unconsciously attracted to us.
This is great if your thoughts are focused on the things you want, but have you ever noticed that when you hurry to reach a place at a specific time, obstacles almost always appear in your path? If you are driving, you can bet that a slow driver will be ahead of you or others will cut in front of you. You might even end up in a traffic jam. Slow drivers will unconsciously gravitate toward you, just so they can answer your unconscious “I am late” call and so help you to fulfill it.
I remember once when I was running very late for an appointment. I was hurrying and began to notice a series of obstacles appearing as I drove. Most of us, when such obstacles arise, hurry even more, but this just creates more obstacles. Then we start to curse the obstacles. Believe me, I have done this on more than one occasion. However, after years of repeating the same thing, I began to realize that what was required at such times was the opposite.
On this occasion, instead of hurrying even more, I chose to pull over and spend a few moments relaxing. While hurrying I was reinforcing a belief that said, “I am late.” By pulling over, a new belief was forming in my mind. Even though I was consciously aware of my lateness, my actions were contradicting this and thus removing the foundations of the belief. A new unconscious belief was beginning to form, as a result of my pulling over, that said, “I have plenty of time.” Unconscious beliefs often form according to our actions. Now I would be sending out different unconscious signals and attracting different drivers around me.
After about five minutes of relaxation, I started up the car again and peacefully drove to my destination obstacle-free. When I arrived, it turned out that my hostess was also running late and my “lateness” had, thankfully, given her more time to get ready. It’s funny how things work out!
By changing my actions and my belief, I changed what was happening. That was a simple example, but if you remember that reality mirrors your thinking, changing any area of your life is well within your control and you need never be at the mercy of any person, organization, or situation. Change your mind — your thoughts, your emotions, and beliefs — and you will change your life.
Life Changes
Visualizing how you want things to be is a good way to change something and huge numbers of people have found this to be successful. This is where, for instance, you clearly imagine what you want, perhaps even writing it down or drawing a picture of it. Your focus on it then begins to alter things around you, attracting the right people to you and giving you intuition that guides what you see and where you go, so that what you focus on begins to unfold around you.
I have noticed, though, that while most people have a lot of success in making life changes this way, for some people things eventually revert back to the way they were before. This is because while visualization and intentions are powerful enough to make obvious changes, your old beliefs often reassert themselves. As they do, negative things just “seem to happen” and you end up in the same situation as before.
For instance, say you find yourself in a job you don’t like and you long for something better. You might start to visualize your “new job” and quite soon, as if by magic, you might get an interview and be offered a job that turns out to be very close to what you imagined. This is natural and simply demonstrates the way that thoughts become reality.
For a few weeks everything might be great in your life, but then changes might begin to occur in your new workplace. People might move on and new people might join. Internal systems and practices might change. You might start to have disagreements with some of your new workmates. Before long you might find yourself in a situation similar to the one you just left.
This is usually because while you were in the old job you built up a few unconscious beliefs such as “I don’t deserve a meaningful job” or “I can’t get a good job” or “It’s not possible to be in a meaningful job” or “People at work are not nice.” These beliefs built up because you interpreted what happened to you, often unconsciously, in one of these ways. For example, if you had little or no success in getting a new job, despite sending out a large number of applications, you might build up the belief that you couldn’t get a good job. Powerful beliefs like this will begin to build a reality that ensures that your experience remains “according to your beliefs.”
This has happened to me on a number of occasions, but I have found that there are ways to make lasting changes.
The first requires courage. It is to take such big actions that there can be no turning back. That way, there is little possibility of your old beliefs re-creating a similar situation because things have changed so much that it is almost impossible to hold the same beliefs that you did before. For example, the belief that you are stuck in a job you hate will certainly change if you resign.
The second is more subtle but immensely powerful, and it is to examine your attitudes and beliefs about yourself, your life, and the world.
One way to do this is to write down how you feel. Cover several pages if you need to, listing all your grievances, annoyances, judgments, and frustrations. But do so with the thought that somewhere in all this there is a belief (or a few beliefs) that is causing things to be the way they are and you intend to discover it.
For example, beliefs like “I am not good enough” or “I don’t deserve happiness” (maybe you judge yourself harshly for things you’ve done in the past) or even “I am not worthy” are common beliefs that people identify.
Once you have identified the root belief, change it by writing down its opposite. For instance, “I am not good enough” would become “I am a great and wonderful person and I am worthy of receiving everything that I dream of.” Then repeat the new belief to yourself several times, hundreds if you have to, over the next few days or weeks. Then when you visualize what you choose to have in your life you will usually find that, when things do change, the change is lasting because you no longer have a belief that’s pulling you back.
The power of belief is immense. We know how powerful the placebo effect is in creating health. But a similar type of placebo effect happens in our daily lives. Our thoughts, intentions, feelings, and beliefs all create what happens to us.
"Feelingization"
Looking at the placebo effect, I recognize that feelings carry great power. If a person with a headache takes a placebo, believing it to be a painkiller, it is not only their belief in the medicine that is a healing factor but also their expectancy that they will get better and their feeling that something positive will happen. Similarly, when a person feels moved to tears, it is not so much the event but the feelings produced that have the biological consequences.
On a deeper level, the creation of proteins in the body can be the product of feelings during the memory-storage process. Scientific studies have suggested, as we learned in Chapter 3, that strong feelings accompanying an experience will ensure that it is encoded strongly as brain cells. Each mental and emotional replay of the event re-expresses the genes that manufacture the proteins in the brain. It is the intensity of feeling that leads to the re-expression of the genes.
In a real sense, then, feelings accelerate the creation of matter. They influence the condensation process. So a really good way to visualize good health is to generate a feeling of what it might be like to be in good health and the type of things you would do in good health. Similarly, a great way to create life changes is to generate a feeling of what the new reality would be like. I call this “feelingization” instead of “visualization” to emphasize the need to feel. The mental image merely gives direction to the feeling.
Using the new job analogy, you might then imagine yourself in the new job (as if it is actually happening) while vividly feeling what it would be like. Try to generate states like excitement, fascination, wonder, awe, joy, laughter, and enthusiasm, as these are powerful states. The feeling carries the creative power and accelerates the creation of what you want. It sends a stronger wave throughout the web than a thought does —making your “unconscious call” louder, so to speak.
You might imagine, for instance, the type of job and location, and even how close or far away it is from home, while joyfully thinking, This is so great. You might imagine new people with the types of personalities that you resonate best with and get excited as you imagine yourself having the types of conversations you love to have.
Any thoughts, then, which carry a strong emotional charge will quickly materialize, and those without any feeling will take longer to become reality. This means both positive and negative thoughts. However, any negative experience created in this way can be just as quickly neutralized with a surge of positive thought and emotion.
All thoughts can be amplified by the power of feeling or belief — faith. When you have a lot of faith, or strong positive feelings about a new situation, healing in the body or life changes can be instantaneous. This is why the placebo effect heals. When you believe (feel certain) you will recover instantly, then you do. When you believe (feel certain) it will take time, then it takes time. Feeling and faith are much more than “mind over matter.” It is really a case of “mind creates matter.”
Changing the World
When you fully move beyond your amnesia, creation can be instantaneous. From this higher state of consciousness you no longer just believe that you create your body and your life, you know — which is a feeling of total certainty.
Spiritual teachings tell us that it is possible for us to grow enough in our consciousness to gain some of the awareness and knowledge of the Higher Self. At such a level of consciousness, beliefs — and so feelings of certainty — about what is possible are intense.
Indeed, Christ said:
‘ I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, “ Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’
Mark 11:22–4
You will be aware that Christ and Krishna could materialize solid objects out of thin air, turn water into wine, and perform instant healing. At their level of consciousness, they could consciously condense vibrations into particles, commanding the formation of atoms and molecules out of thin air. They lived as if they were Higher Selves.
Yogis and mystics also have a degree of conscious control over the creation process as a result of years of meditation and practicing exercises that can develop consciousness. This is why they are able to perform many miraculous feats.
Such feats are becoming increasingly possible because the knowledge of our true nature is vibrating through the web, inspiring more and more people. In my own life, I have observed this more and more with each passing year. Additionally, people whom you might never have imagined would do so are now thinking about spiritual connections, the effects of thoughts and emotions on the body, and even angels; and embracing such ideas as if they had thought that way all their life. I have spoken with people from different parts of the world who agree that the same is happening where they live, too.
Collectively, our attitudes and behavior are changing, and so we are changing the world. All of us send thoughts, intentions, and feelings along the strands of the web. And just as our personal thoughts influence biological events in our bodies and the events of our lives, so our collective thoughts generate tidal waves that influence world events.
So, as we are evolving in our consciousness, moving beyond our temporary state of amnesia, we are changing the world. It is becoming more beautiful every day because we are making it so. At times it may not appear to be so, but events that are not obvious examples of love are simply “healing in progress.” Sometimes to jump high you need to dip first to generate the momentum. Perhaps the same happens in our lives and in the world at large.
What is being revealed everywhere as we evolve in our consciousness is that our natural state is love.
Love
Love is the force behind all intention. It was behind the intention of the Higher Self to create your body, and it was behind God’s intention to form the entire universe. If blowing on still water is the creative force that makes waves on water, then love is the substance of the wind that forms the waves.
That is why it is said that God (or the equivalent in other spiritual and religious traditions) breathed life into the universe. All of the universe was created, with love, out of thin air and ultimately has God as the intelligence behind its shape and its action. And as you are ultimately that intelligence, even though you might not yet be conscious of it, you are the guiding intelligence behind all things. What a responsibility!
It has been said that if you act wealthy, you will become wealthy; if you act poor, you will become poor. If, when faced with challenging situations, you consistently ask yourself, “What would God do now?” and act according to the answer you get, then you will evolve in your consciousness and will make a more consciously positive difference in the world.
Every action you take in life is ultimately motivated by love, even though experiences often cloud our judgment, leading us to act in ways that appear quite far removed from love. This state, the absence of love, is the state of total amnesia called fear.
Love and fear are the roots of all experience.
