Please note here that you will read repeated concepts in this section, they are not errors, they are said in a variety of ways so that as many people as possible can understand.
Believing in things is something we all do out of old habits and indoctrination. We believe in many things without finding out for ourselves if they are valid, we just accept a few of the beliefs on offer. Over the years I began to wonder if every belief system one could choose was a box of beliefs. If they were, then they must have a boundary where the beliefs end. Historically, every culture had its own set of beliefs to do with our spiritual nature. Now of course, we can choose from any of those belief systems, we can check them out and decide which one comes closest to what we think. Then ‘ta-da’, you’ve got yourself a Belief System in a Box, just like a new stereo unit. And you get to have a good experience with it, well, at least until you get to the boundary; read as stereo warranty runs out.
Eventually I came to the conclusion this was an observable phenomenon. I saw it in everyone, everyday. People attached to various belief systems for a variety of reasons, and most are indoctrinated into the belief-systems that are prevalent in their culture. These indoctrinated beliefs form the basis of our culture and therefore the foundation for our lives. This is why we have so much difficulty looking into other offerings that compete for our ability to believe in them, and why so many people think that others are crazy if they have different beliefs.
Belief requires no effort from you . It demands that you accept everything it has to say about life, its purpose and beginnings. It is easier to believe than to put in the effort to find out for ourselves! Life is so much easier for us if we accept the cultural beliefs we are born into, and go about our day to day life not looking beyond the boundaries. Even if we had the luxury of time to look, most people would not put in the effort needed to get to the bottom of it, because modern life requires all our attention in mindful and mindless ways so that we don’t have the energy or inclination to look. It seems odd to me that everyone wants to have a box of belief, but only if that box comfortably fits with some other people's boxes. Very few people are breaking out of the traditional and newly-contemporary moulds. What is worse, people argue over which box is the correct one. As if any one box of beliefs could be the right one. We know we do this, we even know better inside, but it doesn't stop many people. "Gimme that box of beliefs on East meets West spiritual foundations please".
Through my own experiences over more than 30 years, conducted without expectations and pre-formed beliefs about what I should and should not believe, I came to an understanding that this Box business was very human and that the time had come to help end its reign here. I realized that all of the old belief systems and most of the new-ish ones had no place of reference for where we are heading. In short, they are mostly out of date now. Sure, some pieces of each system are valid; we know each has a part of the whole GEM inside it. So we need to find the gems that work, and completely discard all the rest.
Wow, no belief systems, it could be very intense to stand ‘naked’ in the light of our Soul's nature. It would be confronting to most people and not at all comfortable. In order to grow beyond our belief system's boundaries we will need to discard the Box and all, so we can start fresh on being and experiencing ‘what is’ for each of our souls. And maybe we will find each little ‘what is’ could be the same for us all at the same awareness 'levels'.
For me, knowing from direct experience is more effective for growth and understanding than just believing. Even now, people think I’m talking about my beliefs when I share knowledge from my experiences. There is a huge difference between knowing and believing. Most of us never look at what we believe, and more importantly, why we believe what we do. We simply accept the beliefs of our culture and leave it at that. Many people believe almost every word in their glossy new-age magazines, others believe what the psychic has said to them, some believe what a variety of alien races have been recorded as saying on the Internet and many more believe without question what their minister or religious hierarchy say about spiritual things and the meaning of life on earth.
Very few of these people ever ask questions about the information they are provided with, and fewer even think about questions to ask! With Christianity for example, we are told to believe (have faith) and not ask questions, especially the kinds of questions the religion is unable to answer about its own belief-system and the discrepancies within its Book of Belief. And by discrepancies, I refer to the 4,427 direct and major errors in the translation of the original manuscripts. If you are offended by this statement then I ask you to look into why you are offended, because it will indicate an issue within yourself to explore. This is true for all offensive reactions we have; they do show us our inner issues/baggage.
Some people may believe everything I’ve written in this book, and that would worry me as much as the things written above. Do not believe me, suspend your judgements and find out for yourself. This is what I ask the reader to do. I suppose this is more about trying to get people to challenge what and why they believe what they do. To ask you to try stepping out of the Box and just experience for yourself without forming beliefs about it. After all, who really knows? For all we do know the popular movie “The Matrix” may have been an insight into our human-life reality. In some ways it is. Only you have the choice to change that.
While we think about the bigger pictures we can run out of Perception when coming to the boundary of our own understanding. It’s usually up to faith in a belief system to fill in the blanks as the pictures grow larger. While some of us can feel content with this scenario, many of us want to know more. There are a vast array of different offerings from around the world to fill those needs; we read channelled messages that grow in number by the truckload, we get readings done to seek our own answers, we read books and articles from famous authors, we practice a variety of religions, we seek growth in meditation and now we have the luxury to choose what belief system matches our concept of the bigger pictures. Through this we grow, and we add more weight to the belief systems we attached ourselves to. Historically, most of the belief systems we accept have been mechanisms for cultural growth in societies; they took us from feudal cultures to our modern lifestyles. Since those beliefs replaced the ones existing before them, we could wonder if our belief systems are to be replaced.
All Belief-Systems have boundaries.
Today we don’t have that pressure to conform to belief systems, or do we? I’ve known three people in my life who aren’t attached to historically accepted belief systems or any of the new age ones on offer. The experience of non-attachment to beliefs is a lifelong affair giving different perspectives and new grounds to perceive from. Looking at accepted belief systems shows their boundaries or limitations as much as their similarities. If belief systems have limitations to what you can or should experience, then they don’t allow you to see the bigger pictures. This is also true for new age offerings where much on offer does not empower people; yet provides valuable, but short-lived, feel good experience. This is giving the poor man a fish to eat.
Many offerings have belief systems attached to them. Some are similar to what we know historically. Some are new in comparison; offering angels, aliens and any number of ascended beings with a wide range of names and origins. One famous channelled being claims to be incredibly ancient at 35,000 years old, and thereby is of a higher spirituality. Personally, I find this a hilarious state of affairs when at 35,000 years of age this being is really just an embryo in the bigger pictures. There is much disinformation out there. And this is perfect for the times we live in. We are told to discern when thinking about what belief system we want to attach to. And I suggest you be very vigilant in your discernment. Experience has shown me that the simplest methods, with no belief attachments, can be very effective for spiritual growth in awareness. This allows you to go as far as you intend, beyond the boundaries of belief systems. Then the poor man becomes the fisherman who feeds himself.
We know that two people can look at the same object and both will see it differently! Doesn’t that seem a little odd to you? I liken it to moths looking at a light, each moth has a slightly different angle of view to the light and so each moth will perceive that light slightly differently to every other moth. But, if one moth chose to sit with the light and observe all the other moths then we could say this moth is able to perceive a clearer picture of the whole scenario. We could also say that all of us humans are like those moths in that occasionally one of us will observe a bigger picture. And almost everyone will not believe you because they don’t have that same basis to understand/perceive from.
If you live in a western culture then you may find that as a whole we have fairly homogenised perceptions of the world, this also applies to other cultures too but we are focussing on our culture at this point in time. Why are our perceptions homogenised? How has this happened, you may ask. To find answers to these questions we have to look at the processes we have grown up with that created our perceptions in the first place. From the time you were born you have been learning; you learned how to get the attention of your parents when you needed and wanted it. Of course your parents taught you from birth that the universe revolves around you, and then they spent the rest of your life trying to teach you that it doesn’t. And so far all of this has happened well before you started school! You were told that this or that is not the right behaviour, and you heard the word ‘no’ so often that it may have been the first word you spoke to your parents.
Yes, your homogenisation started at home before you could even speak your mind with any clarity so that people could understand what you really meant by the things you said. Most of you will have had such a wonderfully natural ability to perceive clearly at a very young age, until your socialisation process began. At this point we were like Pavlov’s dogs, the things we wanted came about if we gave the right responses and of course we didn’t get many things because we did not show the appropriate behaviour in order to be rewarded with what we really wanted. Don’t forget though, that you were still operating as if the universe revolved around you. But, this was not your fault, nor was it your parent’s fault because they were just operating from the procedures that they were taught during their socialisation processes.
The closer you got to school age the more this indoctrination process deepened, so that your actions would fall within an acceptable range and you could then be moulded into a useful member of society. You may have had ‘imaginary’ friends, and if you did you may have found that you weren’t able to see them any more after an age relating to the first few years of schooling. At school you were right in the thick of the indoctrination/socialisation process and you altered most of your behaviour to fit in with the rest of the kids, and you eagerly did this so you would not be left out of things. Who could blame you? Nobody wants to feel like a misfit, an outcast, marginalised or viewed as a fringe-dweller that doesn’t fit with our society. We all want to belong.
So now we are starting to perceive that we have been indoctrinated into the social conditioning required by our western culture; we’ve been made to fit a mould, one that only allows for us to look at what our society finds acceptable, and does not allow you to look for long beyond the accepted beliefs and patterns. In a sense we could say it is like living inside a box where we aren’t able to perceive anything existing outside of that box. Everything our society has indoctrinated us into believing is inside that box, it is safe, comfortable and reassuring for us, and in this way we become more content to stay in that comfort zone. I am not saying that our society is to blame for everything, although when we open our eyes and look at the world today we are better able to see just where our society is leading us, that’s if we have the time to look while we speed through everyday in the chase for more.
What things did we learn from this indoctrination or socialisation process? Some of the things we learned can be stated in this way;we are small and insignificant things in the bigger picture, we have no real power to make changes that aren’t sanctioned by our powerful leaders, we have fewer and fewer rights as individuals, we have been raised in societies based on one belief-system, we have a cultural imperative to follow in the footsteps of those who came before us, and we are mostly denigrated if we speak out against the indoctrination and homogenised perceptions. But what is the main ‘homogenised perception’ for most of us?
Could it be we are indoctrinated into believing the meaning of life for us little people is this; you get an education, leave school and get a job, get married, have 2.5 children, get a massive mortgage and buy two cars, usually. This may force you to stay in the same low-paid job so you can afford the over-priced house your children are expecting to be given when you die, and at sometime you will retire to enjoy the good life when you are too old to enjoy the things you dreamed of doing with your life?
I for one think this cultural dream needs some modifications to it that allows for something else we can choose. Presently, the only other option is to go against the grain so that you have little or no material possessions and may well end your life as a bag-person, a homeless street bum with no chance of ever making your way back to the mainstream. There is no middle ground anymore. Are we then not that different to other cultures we see as oppressive? Can we modern westerners even see another option for those who wish to break the mould? Let me answer that question for you, No. It would be fair to say we don’t allow much room in the dream for those who want to do things differently; in fact, I think that a little deviation is acceptable in our society but only to a certain extent. After that you will have no other option than to be perceived as opposing the cultural expectations and thwarting your own chance at the dream.
A few things are at play here so that most of us will keep to the well worn path we might call ‘normal’. Even after our indoctrination processing, we are barraged with images of normalcy through the T.V. and every other media avenue so that we are always reminded of the ‘proper path’ for us westerners. As parents we are bombarded by our children to work within those oppressive confines of normalcy, as they believe that they need all the trappings of modern life and so put their efforts into making us tow the line so that they can be normal in their culture. Do you see how much pressure we are all under? Wouldn’t you like to have a break from all that pressure? I would.
If we think about it, the indoctrination process is alive and well in our schools, religion is taught as a subject which makes the smaller kids think the people exposing them to religion are actually school teachers and so they must be right in what they say! It works this way; get them while they are young, mould them, bring them to the belief that you want them to have and never allow them to have the slightest opportunity to look outside that box while they live under your roof! So where are the religious instruction ‘teachers’ for Buddhism, Taoist philosophy, Islam and the other various religious offerings? There aren’t any you say. Why not? Why is religion taught in schools when it is the job of parents and elders to awaken children to the spiritual side of existence? And, how many parents are there who could adequately offer an expansive view of spiritual reality so that their kids can make more effective choices for their soul? There are very few indeed who haven’t been indoctrinated and are more than content to tow the cultural expectation-line.
We are lost for choice, even though we think we live in an expansive culture offering us all a wide choice for life options to choose from. In reality, we are ‘allowed’ to think that we have a great number of choices and we are frowned upon if we look outside the accepted box for too long, even though in our western culture we do have more options than our grand-parents did. But, the control still only allows for a specific degree of variation before it starts to shut doors in your face. Have you not noticed the dramatic loss of individual freedom that we as a race have really only had in the past 30 years or so? Doesn’t that seem like we are handed something on one side and it is taken away from us on the other side? Are you happy to let this continue?
If you were raised in a society that allows you to consider anything outside its box of beliefs then you could choose to be an artist even if your family didn’t have the money to send you to art school, because the society would assist you in reaching your dreams. The society would know how important it is for each person to feel as if they can achieve what-ever it is they are driven to do, and in so doing that society would benefit from supporting people who wish to make a difference and achieve something that would also be valuable to the society. Everyone would be able to pursue their inner goals, to rise up to their biggest picture of themselves and in so doing I think societies would find great benefits like the absence of crime. If crime is the result of people who feel left out and wanting in a society that does not care about them, that makes no allowance for improving their lot, then a society that loves and cares for all the people should be basically free from the majority of crime. It makes sense doesn’t it?
At this point we can see that it is our societies and the imperatives of our cultures that keep us locked into the mould; the Perception Boundary. We see that we have been indoctrinated into certain ways of thinking and that thinking is specifically designed to keep us dis-empowered as the little souls it says we are. And we can see what some changes could provide for our societies, to see the benefits of doing things differently to how they have been done in the past. While the examples in this chapter have been pretty basic, they do help us to see a clearer jigsaw puzzle by providing a different perception.