Belief Influences Reality? How?
By George A. Boyd © 2016
Let us use the example of common of beliefs influencing prosperity. For example, if you believe you will become incredibly wealthy, how might this become manifest? Here are several notions about how this might manifest:
- Instant manifestation – In this conception, all you have to do is believe with unwavering conviction, and the money will materialize out of the air. Here you supposedly have an inner genie that has miraculous powers, and you only have to command it what to do through your unwavering belief and conviction. [Do you remember the stories of Aladdin? This is the lamp you rub and the genie appears, and gives you three wishes? But where did you leave that damn lamp!]
- Seeding the Plenum – In this view, your belief manifests when you “seed” the creative matrix of your Superconscious through your directed intention of the attentional principle. The act of inner creation combines intention, visualization, and affirmation to mold the substance of mind and matter to bring into manifestation what you intend.
- Speaking the Word – This idea views the continuum of consciousness, mind, and matter as levels of energy (ethers) made up of progressively finer vibrations. In this model, you only have to vibrate the ethers to create what you want—you do this by speaking the Word, through spoken affirmation or decree—speaking I AM statements with full conviction. This might take the form of “I am now a multi-billionaire; I have abundance overflowing.” This idea presumes that this decree will make you a multi-billionaire if you will only periodically vibrate the ethers with your resonant voice filled with conviction.
- Asking Your Omnipotent Higher Power – From this viewpoint, an empowered, omnipotent spiritual agent—God, the Holy Spirit, an Ascended Master, a god or goddess, or a mighty archangel—has the power to make your wish come true. You only have to make a heartfelt request to this being through prayer, ask for what you want, and this being will grant what you want because it loves you. In this scenario, you believe that you don’t have the power to make it happen, but the spiritual being to whom you pray, does.
- Acting As If – In this model, if you want to be a billionaire, you have to act like you were a billionaire now. So if you believe that you are destined for great abundance and wealth, why not charge your credit cards to the max and take out huge loans? After all, this line of reasoning presumes that the wealth will just come to you, and you will easily be able to pay this money back. [The only downside of this notion is that if the money does not magically arrive, you will actually have to pay the amounts on your credit cards—and if you can’t pay, your creditors will make your life a living hell.]
- Influencing the Subatomic Field – Those who hold his opinion contend that beliefs actually influence matter through molding the subatomic field, and this is the source of so-called miracles. “Whatever you believe,” they say with conviction, “Is what you receive.” [You might test this notion with an exercise: visualize a frog will materialize in the corner of your room, and believe with all your heart it will manifest without fail. It will probably dawn on you after some futile practice of this exercise that your frog is not forthcoming!]
- Taking Constructive Action – Those who espouse this theory propose that if you believe something and you choose to make it happen, you will learn what you need and take sustained action to actually make this notion a reality. In this model, you acquire the knowledge and skills that lead to a highly lucrative career, how to do very profitable investing, or learn winning strategies for sales of high ticket items that earn you a lot of money—and you effectively create a destiny for yourself that guarantees you will reach your goal of wealth. [This path to wealth could take different routes. This might involve becoming a highly paid professional—a doctor, lawyer, or chief executive officer. You might study finance and learn how to make a lot of money through investments. You might sell a lot of real estate or other high-ticket items for a large commission fee. You might pursue on-line marketing and sell your product to hundreds or thousands of people. You might parlay an invention or technological innovation into a multi-million dollar buyout.]
Only notion number seven proposes you actually do something concrete to make what you want happen. The other notions invoke metaphysical or magical principles, based on the purported mechanism of how beliefs influence the genie-like subconscious mind, the Superconscious mind, the Law of Attraction, an all-powerful spiritual Being, the ethers, or the subatomic field.
By taking constructive action, could you fail? Yes. There is nothing guaranteed. We suggest, however, that opening the valve of possibility though positive, realistic beliefs—coupled with sustained constructive action—will produce better results than metaphysical treatments and faith-based conviction alone.
Should you then abandon metaphysical treatments? If they energize and activate your creative higher mind, they can’t hurt, if done in tandem with constructive action. You want your Superconscious mind to be your ally.
Abandon the constructive action piece, however, and you have just stepped off the cliff into self-delusion and fantasy. You have arrived at the mania mindset: this is where you believe that whatever you desire is instantly manifest. [Hopefully, doing the frog exercise might disabuse some of you from this over-enthusiastic belief?]
Belief as the Valve of Possibility
The actual mechanism through which belief influences reality appears to be whether it encourages or inhibits constructive action. This valve upon possibility that belief opens or closes can be demonstrated with two examples:
“America is the land of opportunity. I believe I can become wealthy if I learn how and apply myself.” [This belief will encourage someone to take constructive action.]
“My family has always been poor. I don’t have a good education. There are no jobs around here. How am I going to become rich?” [This belief discourages constructive action, and promotes the perception that nothing will change.]
If any of the metaphysical or magical notions have any influence, it may be that they encourage people to open this valve of belief, so they can entertain the idea that what that want is achievable—and if others have attained it, they can attain it, too. Once they expand their mindset to embrace the possibility, people then need is a way to actually reach their goals.
The steps to this dovetailing of metaphysical treatment and constructive action comprises seven steps:
- You come to believe that what you want is possible.
- You choose to make this happen and formulate what you want as a goal.
- You make plans to reach this goal, and enact them to achieve it.
- You put together necessary capital, resources, and the team to help you achieve your goal.
- You manage capital, resources, and the team, and adjust course to your goal, revising plans and practices, if necessary.
- You persist despite obstacles or setbacks and do whatever is necessary to reach your goal.
- You make what you believe come true, because you have taken real action.
We propose that your beliefs do influence reality in that they change your perception of what is possible. We point out that notions that things will instantly manifest are unrealistic, but when your beliefs actually drive successful action, you will have a better chance of attaining what you desire. And you will have a better chance of getting a frog in the corner of your room if you go out to the frog pond and capture one, and release it in the corner of your room! [Why you might wish to do this, however, is another matter!]
