Knowing and Believing - Your Original Purpose
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Section 27

Knowing and Believing

For you to be able to differentiate between what you believe, or believe in, and what you truly know from your own experience of living is a primary determinant of the quality and real value of your life. As we have covered earlier in the section ‘The Unbelievable Ancestors of Self’, it is our ability to think and believe that has enabled us to be the creative creatures that we are today. It is this same powerful faculty, however, that can be, and is, an insidious and puissant influence in so many areas of life.

 

It is inarguable that anyone who chooses or needs to believe anything, or anyone about anything, clearly cannot know the truth about the ‘thing’ in question. For example, if I can play the piano then I know that I can play, I don’t have to believe that I can. If I have seen the Eiffel Tower, then I know what it looks like, I don’t have to believe it. And if I have smelled a rose then I know how it smells and the feelings it evokes, there is no requirement for belief. Consequently, living by strong beliefs rather than by experiential knowledge can be a dangerous game and arena to play in. Let me explain because this is ever so important.

 

Clearly, there is a fine line here. It is entirely healthy, advantageous, and indeed intended for us to be able to operate in a conceptual world, share ideas, and continue creative exploration and expression through our bodies here on Earth. However, being open to new ideas and holding them lightly for the purpose of potential creative outcomes, is something entirely different to believing things. Believing is when we invest energy―a part of ourselves―into an idea that we do not know to be true in our own experience, and this can lead to no end of dysfunctional outcomes. Here is an example to help demonstrate the point. I am going to share some information with you …

 

‘I live on a property in the bush. At the bottom of the property there is a small hill, and if you climb to the top of that hill and peer over the other side you will see a field of purple grass. Towards the end of that field there is concealed tunnel that leads to a small underground village, and in that village lives a rare tribe of people who have green skin and are only one metre tall. They are a very advanced culture, and have developed technologies to assist them in teleportation and intergalactic travel. I know this because I have been to where they live, and have travelled with them to other dimensions’.

 

Now, what can you do with this information?

 

You could immediately recognise the truth of it, if you, too, had been to the place I am describing and had the same experience―it would be your unquestionable knowledge, and there would be no need for you to believe or disbelieve me; no reason for any conflict to arise. However, if you have not had the direct experience, you only have three further options.

 

The first option you have is to dismiss outright the information I have given you, and perhaps see me as some kind of mad or deluded person. You may then refuse to listen to anything further I had to say on the matter, and possibly deny yourself a powerful experience, if what I am telling you is true.

 

The second option is that you could be open to the idea that the story I have shared with you may be true, even though it is out of your experience and sounds unlikely or suspicious. This would be a respectful and intelligent response. There is no investment of your energy in simply being open to new ideas; they will either prove to be correct or incorrect, and either way it matters very little, if you have nothing riding on the outcome.

 

The third possible response is that you are fascinated and excited about the information―the story―and choose to invest some of your energy into it, which is to say, you might believe me.

 

But why would I want you to believe me? And why might you want to believe me? These are good questions that point us to the very core of the problem about belief.

 

Let’s first consider the position of me, the storyteller. If what I am telling you is the truth, then, if I am an empowered person living in alignment with the true Source of my Being, I have no need at all for you to believe me―it doesn’t matter to me what you think. If you are interested and open to what I am saying, then I can take you to the place I am speaking of or give you directions to find it, and you can have the experience yourself. Perhaps if I wanted to, I could also be a little entrepreneurial, and charge a fee for my services. But not any part of me needs you to believe me.

 

However, if I am not empowered in life by drawing my strength and direction from within, then I will have a tendency―indeed, an unconsciousness requirement―to get you to believe me. Why is this so?

 

This is a critical point. We all need energy. Life energy to sustain ourselves. In the natural state, this energy is provided in every moment from within as the feeling of wellbeing that guides us. But for those of us who are not connected in this way―which is pretty much every person on the planet in varying degrees―we must find and appropriate energy from the outside. Other humans are a primary potential source and target. And so, the foremost reason that I might want you to believe what I say is so that I can get energy from you.

 

Apart from the energy I receive from you by way of getting your attention for a moment as I speak―which is a natural function of the exchange when communicating respectfully with another―if I can get you to believe me, then I also get your energy at a much deeper and enduring level. If you believe me, it means that you have invested some of your energy into me and my ideas, and this is ego at work once again, as we discussed in the section ‘The Nature of Ego’. The sole reason I want or need you to believe me, the sole reason anyone wants or needs anyone to believe them about anything, is simply to get energy.

 

Now let’s consider the position of you, the audience. Why might you want to believe me? Although there may seem to be many reasons, with sufficient examination they will distil to reveal the primary reason that there is something in it for you. The story I have told you has appealed to something that you want, need, or desire. Consequently, because it seems that I have something that you want, there is a certain power imbalance in the relationship. I can now confidently ask for something in return, even though, if I am not telling the truth, I know that I cannot ever deliver at my end.

 

For example, if I claimed that just upon meeting these people from below the purple field you would immediately look and feel ten years younger, or that after being with them for only a few minutes you would realise your true purpose in life and be ready to return home with renewed vigour, you might become very interested in meeting with them. It would then be highly possible and also reasonable for us to make a good deal: I’ll take you to the green people, if you bring me cows, gold or make me King, for example. Of course, if I am telling the truth, it might be a reasonable deal. But if I am not, I’ll have to string you along for as long as I can, and invent all kinds of other stories to distract or entertain you for as long as possible. All I have to ensure is that I don’t take you anywhere near the hill at the bottom of my property such that you might come to see I am not telling the truth.

 

The behaviour of continuously fabricating stories to avoid the truth consumes enormous vital energy, the same energy that is required for the sustenance of our existence. Accordingly, more energy is required to fuel such behaviour and if it is not sourced from within then it must be taken from others. As you can see this creates a snowball effect of more and more taking, more and more deceit, which feeds the growth of the egoic-centric world.

 

Today, people are persuaded and coerced into believing so many things. And although this may seem harmless on the surface, perhaps even necessary at times, it can and does have dire consequences. Because ego effectively derives its entire sense of existence from beliefs, and because it is an entity that wants to survive, it is unavoidable that it must rise up to defend any perceived threat to those beliefs. Consequently, it is the need for ego to create and expand the beliefs that support its existence, coupled with its defence of anything that might threaten them, that underpins almost every human conflict throughout history.

 

The more that people collectively believe a story, the more the story gathers as a substantial reality in the human psyche, and those people then draw power from it. The storyteller gains power through the attention they are receiving, and the people gain power through gathering together―uniting―in the belief. This gathering together generates a strong feeling of connectedness, purpose and belonging in the group, that on the one hand might seem to serve, but on the other will divide and cause conflict to a far greater degree.

 

Another danger that arises from strong attachment to mindsets is that to blindly believe what somebody or some organisation says, rather than knowing it in your own experience (or at least being open to it until you do know that it is either true or untrue), you will tend to hold that person or organisation responsible for whatever happens to you with respect to that belief, good or bad. Again, this is because you will have invested energy into their ideas; you will have aligned with them, attached to them, and because of this you will then tend to hold that person responsible. If the belief serves you, you will tend to elevate, idolise, or worship whoever authored the ideas. If it does not serve you, you will tend to condemn or denigrate them. This kind of behaviour is behind the rise and fall of many powerful people and organisations throughout history. It is still prevalent today, and will continue to be so, as long as the responsibility for life is transferred to anyone or anything other than yourself.

 

There is never really a need for you to believe, or believe in, anything, if you spend a little time examining this, and better still, if you can come to realise it in your own experience. Knowing is a quality of the empowered person, whereas belief is the powerhouse of ego. The purpose of your ability to think and believe is to enable your creativity only. In its right place it is there to serve. Misplaced it is the cause of all troubles in the world.

 

In the next and final section of this work we look at and practise the most powerful skill you can develop to help you dissolve the ego, empower yourself, and step into the life that you came here to live.