Choices and Illusions (26 page)

Look for Inconsistencies

One way to discover the influence of sound-bite reasoning is to

search your mind for inconsistencies, for what professionals refer to as cognitive dissonance. For example, if you listen to much of the

popular logic bandied about these days, you quickly discover that

somehow it’s not the time to be driving around in an expensive

automobile, yet most people want one. The logic goes like this: Successful people represent the rich, the other one percent, who should be taxed heavily because, after all, many of them are dishonest.

They’re the Wall Street and banker crowd, the Bain Capital types,

and the like.

Allow me to illustrate this point from my own experience. I

left home at a very young age. I had the clothes on my back and a

trusty Ronson lighter that was my light and heat at night. I moved

into a gutted-out milk truck that was to be converted into a camper of sorts. no heat, no lights, no bathroom. I did have a job, and so while I attended high school, I worked to support myself, and in

time I could afford a room with a bath. Many people in my life

have been incontrovertibly indispensable to my success, but they

all worked just as hard as I do, and no one else did it for any of us.

It was our risk.

Here’s the point. If you consider the successful to be greedy or

evil or inherently overpaid for what they do, and therefore subject to a different set of rules, such as ever heavier tax burdens, then why would you want to work long and hard to be successful? In

short, if prosperity is your dream, how can you condemn it on one

hand and seek it on another? Instead of thinking about that person

in the Bugatti, Aston Martin, lamborghini, or Ferrari as a fat cat

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who probably did something unethical or illegal, wouldn’t it make

more sense to think about him or her in these terms:
Wow—great

for you. That’s for me, too!

Consistency in our beliefs is critical, because there is no such

thing as a belief that is not connected in some way to the vast web that is all of our beliefs. If money is the root of all evil in your belief system, then you will push yourself away from it when it

approaches and wonder why your best efforts all seem to fail. That

is not just dissonant; it is self-sabotage!

Our purpose here is not to pursue the many tricks, devices,

manipulations, and conditionings that have produced our pro-

gramming and continue to do so. Rather, it is to make you aware

of them, for to wake up presupposes that somehow the discovery is

made that, in even the smallest of ways, we are asleep. That said, it would be remiss of me not to address some of the mechanical limitations that predetermine how we react to information or process

it and therefore allow dissonant beliefs to coexist.

Thought Monitoring

The first mechanical limitation that occurs to me is the way in

which we are hardwired when it comes to analytical information

processing. For example, analogously, there are different circuits

for empathic response and analytical processing. What does that

mean? Think of it this way. If I am glazed over in my emotional

reaction to some sound bite, image, or idea, then my analytical

process fails to operate. Instead of applying reason to arguments

made by the one we feel empathy for, the one whom we trust or

identify as our hero or heroine, we continue to rely on our emo-

tions. If someone challenges our reasons at that point, we typically fail to be reasonable. We may respond with arguments, but if they

fail, we will almost certainly become enraged. Why? Because we

know we’re right, and our feelings assure us of that.

There are many other mechanical aspects about being human

that govern us just as surely as there are operating limitations to our many machines. It is ignorant to think otherwise, not that they 155

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must operate, but that in order for us to override them we must be

aware that they are there.

You may remember, as mentioned earlier, the episode of
Brit-

ain’s Got Talent
when singer Susan Boyle appeared. Here was a disheveled spinster in apparel circa 1950 making her worldwide

debut. The audience laughed, jeered, rolled their eyes, and more.

Yet when she opened her mouth and began to sing, the most mel-

lifluous sound emerged. The audience and the judges were taken

aback—but why? What makes us think that a singer should look

a certain way?

Monitoring our thoughts, learning who we really are, is pretty

straightforward and does not require the genius of a rocket scien-

tist. That said, it does require the persistence of the most tenacious creature you can imagine. Thought monitoring is essential if you’re ever going to truly understand yourself or become fully mindful.

So, when I run into those thought patterns that are not in my best

interest, I pay attention. I sometimes find myself having what I

refer to as the “Krispy Kreme” conversations. This label arises as

the result of a lecture I once attended when the facilitator, dr. Brian King, spoke of habits and how the nucleus accumbens asserts, or

inserts, itself. The story goes like this:

One day, King decided to lose some weight. Since he loved

Krispy Kreme doughnuts so much, he concluded that he could eas-

ily lose the pounds if he avoided his favorite treat. Conveniently, he had just moved, and the nearest Krispy Kreme was about five miles

down the interstate, so he would simply not get on the interstate.

Problem solved.

This strategy worked for the first month or so, but the day came

when he needed to travel out of town. Once he was on the inter-

state, the first thing that came to his mind was Krispy Kreme. Then he began a dialogue in his head that went something like this:

Krispy Kreme. I could stop for one doughnut.

No, you would never get just one.

Well, I was going to stop for coffee somewhere anyway, so

why not there?

Because you wouldn’t just get coffee, and you know it.

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Yeah, but I have been good for months now; I deserve a

doughnut as a reward.

You know all about habits and addictions. Listen to yourself.

It’s not an addiction if I can avoid them as I have for as long
as I have.

Don’t kid yourself.

One doughnut—what’s the real harm?

This internal conversation continued until King realized that

he was parking his car in the Krispy Kreme parking lot.

I’m sure you are familiar with this kind of experience as well.

For me, when this form of dialogue begins, I think,
Here goes some
of that Krispy Kreme nonsense,
and turn off the switch. But turning it off is not always easy, and if you’re to be truly successful, you almost always must dig down inside to really understand yourself,

your motives, your fears, and your mechanism. Some of us are

unwilling to make the effort necessary to succeed, and yet continue to go through the motions, implying that we are trying. Unfortunately, this form of trying is like changing clothes. We may behave somewhat differently, but we are still the same person, albeit often hiding from ourselves in some form of blissful trance.

Being Blissed

not long ago I watched a TV series called
V
about an advanced alien species that invades Earth offering peace but intending quite the contrary. Their demeanor and propaganda is so good that earthlings accept their offerings and every word in absolute bliss, without question, consideration, or any intelligent enquiry. Those folks, who were thrilled to be programmed by the invaders, were referred to as being “blissed.” Many people today live in a state of self-alienation and yet are unaware of it—they are blissed, if you will.

Years ago I picked up what turned out to be two of the most

influential books I’ve read in my life. They continue to hold my

attention, because they speak to the truth of our human endeavor.

On one hand is the potential, and no one expressed this better than 157

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Richard Bach in his classic
Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
2 On the other end of the continuum, as I discussed earlier, is the work of British psychiatrist R. d. laing and his book
The Politics of Experience,
in which he discusses the condition of alienation. The way I see it,

self-growth is only possible when you allow for the possibility

that you might be wrong, when you learn to question yourself

from every direction, when you stop accepting the limiting norms

that society attempts to place on you—and instead strive for the

seemingly impossible. Then, and only then, can you walk the path

of Jonathan livingston Seagull and break through the traps that

society has placed you in and find your highest, truest self.

I encourage you to begin the journey inward. discover yourself,

and learn to love all of you. In the process, I think you will find it possible to embrace all of life with a renewed vitality and put on

the clothes of the genuine, authentic you!

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Breaking The TranCe

“Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act

on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered

and unrecognized about us.”

— J A m e s h A r v e y r o b i n s o n

There are two questions I often hear: “Why am I here?” and

“Is it too late for me?” The first has to do with purpose. For me, I believe our collective and individual purpose is service. The second has to do with guilt, fear, and even aging. despite the many

varieties in which I hear this question, it generally can be stated this way: “I think it’s too late for me, and I don’t deserve the best.”

Your purpose is service and

life is a journey, not a destination.

Sometimes the “too late” has to do with age, and sometimes

with actions in life. I will tell you the same thing all sacred documents say: “It’s never too late while you still draw breath.” As

long as you breathe, you are in motion. The entire universe is in

motion, expanding and contracting—not all that different from

your lungs. Without motion there is atrophy and stagnation or

entropy and eventually singularity. When we do leave this plane,

the moment we die nothing changes but breath. For a time, cells

continue to divide, multiply, and otherwise carry on in their local communities just as they did during what we call life. What’s

stopped is breath.

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Thoughts are in motion. Our stream of consciousness, inner

talk, is in motion. Our thoughts create and communicate. Even

when physically unable to do certain things, our mind can do the

doing. Research has shown how prayer from a stranger at great

distance can heal. It is never too late!

Once, however, I also held the notion that it was too late for me.

My awakening was slow. For a long time, I refused to take a long

serious look at myself. I ran from my own emotional pain and hid

behind money, power, anger, hostility, and false pride. But one day I couldn’t hide any longer. little by little, the layers were peeled away until I was forced to seek my true self. I had lots of help along the way, and I guarantee that you will, too, if you choose to make

the journey that seems to know no end and leads over and over

only to that question, “How high is up?” The Universe will provide

you with rewards and help, as it did me, because that is simply how the Universe works. dr. Wayne W. dyer, in his excellent work
The
Power of Intention,
puts it this way: “[I]ntention is not something
you do,
but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy!” He continues, quoting Carlos Castaneda’s work
The
Active Side of Infinity:
“Intent is a force that exists in the universe.

When . . . (those who live off the Source) beckon intent, it comes

to them and sets up the path for attainment . . .”

You are not your mind or body—you are spirit.

According to dr. dyer, you cannot know the meaning of life

until you connect with the power that created you. You are not

your mind or body—you are spirit. Spirit is giving and creative.

Spirit is kind, loving, beautiful, expanding, abundant, and recep-

tive. Emulating these qualities begins the connection process.

dyer also says that each of us is a God experience walking! I

read this for the first time on an airplane flight, and I began to look at everyone differently. The divine, by whatever name you prefer,

creates every human being, who is therefore a divine experience

walking. I can’t tell you how many smiles, rules bent, and other

help I received while I held this vision of everyone I encountered: