I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Perception is reality.” Perception, however, is only part of the picture. The greater part of REALITY lies beyond your perception and defies human definitions or explanations. Some ancient cultures speak of the ultimate reality — God — as that which cannot be spoken of or about. Thus, reality remains hidden and not only unknown, but unknowable. All we can really know — in a traditional sense — is that which isn’t hidden. All we can know are these passing, temporary, transient, illusory experiences that come out of “nowhere” and pass through our awareness on their way back into “nothingness.”

Our path seems to be from “Nowhere to Now Here to Now There, which is where we started — Nowhere.” Some cultures believe this is a continuous process and, like the tide, the seasons, day and night, and every other part of nature, we rise and fall — into and out of existence in this physical world. Cultures who believe in reincarnation believe that, like a spinning wheel, this cycle can be accelerated or slowed — we can add more energy, wisdom, etc, or we can lose energy and personal power — all through our own thought-inspired actions. In each part of the cycle, we are preparing for the next part; we are sowing seeds for the coming seasons. Who knows?

The point is, whatever you believe – you believe. More important is the fact that your reality is shaped and interpreted according to your beliefs; so, if you don’t like your experience, you need only change your belief about it. Consider the example of an “irritating” co-worker who can’t seem to get along with anyone. This person probably wants to fit in and be accepted, but doesn’t know how, or can’t find the inner resources to take those important first steps and DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. If you recognize this and love those who seem to need it the most, you will be amazed at the change; and you may find true treasures where you thought there were only worthless stones.

Change the way you look at those situations, experiences, and people that seem to irritate or upset you the most; you’ll find that, as your perception changes, so does your reality. You can find friends in the exact place you found enemies yesterday — with a simple change in the way you perceive these people in your experience. At first, sudden changes in behavior can be met with suspicion; you can surely understand this, so don’t make an issue out of it. Be persistent in your efforts to see things and people in a new light — through new eyes. You don’t have to force your “charity” on others; but initial rejection of your efforts at friendship don’t mean you have to stop being kind, or friendly. Ice melts slowly in the sun; but it eventually melts.

By creating new perceptions, you can actually create new realities. Throughout the ages people have used prayer, meditation, contemplation, concentration, and other mental faculties to change perceptions and create new realities. Think-tanks are used by governments, advertisers, and researchers to break through the limitations of current perceptions and create new realities. The common theme is, “As a man thinketh, so it is done unto him;” or, “If man can imagine it, man can do it.” Henry Ford said, “If you think you can, or think you can’t, either way you’re right.” So where do these thoughts come from, anyway? And how do we change them?

I see our dreams turning into reality along a path that looks something like this:

We Conceive of a thing;
We Believe in that thing;
We Perceive the reality of that thing;
We Achieve resonance with that thing;
We Receive that thing in our experience — according to our thoughts and beliefs.
We can’t really “change” our thoughts; but the thoughts we focus on will become our primary experience. In other words, it is preferable to THINK OF SOMETHING POSITIVE rather than try to STOP THINKING SOMETHING NEGATIVE. Instead of stopping old thoughts, consciously choose new thoughts and practice thinking them. Where do you get new thoughts? You can inventory your old thoughts and “reverse” them. In other words, you can write down your beliefs about yourself, for instance, and then turn them around. If you write down, “I am fat,” change it to, “I am FIT and healthy;” and say it whether you believe it or not. You must first declare a thing before you believe it. If you don’t have belief — MAKE BELIEVE. The repetition of affirmations is the best way to build belief: “I think I can; I think I can; I know I can; I know I can…”

Essentially, the things we think about come from three primary sources — sometimes called the three instruments of knowledge. There are, presumably, three ways you can come to know something. Obviously, you must know of something for it to be a part of your thoughts and conscious reality or experience. These are the ways we come to know the things in our experience:

Perception — Acquiring information from the world via Sensory Perception (Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell, Touch…)
Inference — Combining information acquired via Sensory Perception to form new ideas or concepts
Intuition — Information that arrives in our awareness “spontaneously,” or not obviously through Perception
Some people call Intuition, “ESP,” or “Extra-Sensory Perception;” meaning that we have “sensed” something at a level “above,” or “higher than,” our physical senses — there are many ways of interpreting the ways information seems to arrive within our awareness. Sayings such as, “If you think long, you think wrong…” imply that our first impressions — intuition — are much more reliable than inference. Inference — like Perception — is based on the senses; and anyone who has seen a magician’s act has a real good idea about some of the ways our senses can lie to us.

Perception, for instance, includes information we are told by others. If we are told a specific thing at an early age, this information affects our perception; it could become a core belief by which we live our life. Consider children born to parents who are members of what the media would call a “hate group,” or a group of racial extremists. These children will have a completely different experience than children growing up without such prejudices. Right or wrong is beside the point; the point is — different thoughts and beliefs create different perceptions and experiences.

If you like eating a food that you used to hate, you have experienced another example of changing your experience of reality by changing the way you perceive your environment — in this case food. Allergies, fears, and phobias can be anchored into us in this same way; which is why an apparently harmless substance can cause someone to react in ways that can be life-threatening — or why average adults can be paralyzed in fear at the sight of an insect or spider. The spider has no power over us; but our perception of the spider (which is filtered by our experience and beliefs…) is enough to trigger our protective responses.

Sometimes we experience changes in our perception and perspective overnight — as if by magic. We ask questions about our lives and, at some point, the information arrives and we feel spontaneously “enlightened.” But, whether you use prayer, affirmations, hypnosis, meditation, or one of the many, highly-effective change techniques available today (such as the Z-Point Process for Instant Emotional Healing), when your thoughts change, your beliefs change; and when your beliefs change, your life changes. And there is not a single limiting belief that you can’t change. Just imagine your life without limits — imagine your life, only easier.

There are many ways to change your perceptions; and there are many inferences that can be drawn from any set of sensory inputs. The “real” part of our existence — the part we can weigh and measure — seems to be the most fluid part. Reality — the unseen, underlying fabric of existence — is always there; the physical world comes and goes with time and is always subject to our perceptions and interpretations. We apparently live in an illusion that we can actively — and interactively — edit with our thoughts and feelings. Since most of us are faced with this world daily, it helps to remember that we can’t always control what happens, but we can control how we perceive and respond to what happens. No matter what happens “out there,” we can always create and control our own experience “in here,” because perception is reality — or a part of it, at least.

by Pete Koerner, Author of The Belief Formula … and Spontaneous Pancake Creator!