No doubt you've heard it said: "We create our own reality" or "reality is whatever you believe." Indeed, consciousness does play a role in shaping the physical world.

But be careful. The truth is not so simple—or as simplistic as the popular cliché would have you believe.

In this new series, I explore the relationship between belief and reality and show why it is important to know the difference between "belief" and "intention." Beliefs are mental habits that block our power. Intention, however, is creative and has power to change lives.

Be prepared to experience reality beyond belief.




Shifting Paradigms

Q: I understand that paradigms shift over time, and that cultures transition from one to the next.  But what if the “old” paradigm is clearly crumbling, the “emerging” paradigm makes sense, and yet we don't fully accept the “new” because the “old” is so deeply rooted?  How do we make the shift in ourselves?  Why do we sometmes fight the shift?

Here’s the challenge: We are born into the dominant cultural paradigm, and we swim in it unconsciously as a fish in water. But sometimes we wake up. We have experiences that don’t fit into the mold of the “old” paradigm—i.e., we have anomalous experiences. So what do we do?

I think the first thing is to discover as best we can just what the dominant paradigm tells us about the nature of reality, and then look to see which elements of it we accept and align with.

Next, we identify those aspects of our own experiences and beliefs that don’t fit the dominant paradigm, and look to see in what ways the dominant paradigm needs to shift in order to accommodate these “anomalous” experiences. (That’s what we investigate in my “Paradigms of Consciousness” class at John F. Kennedy University.)

What elements of the “emerging” paradigm (systems holism and perennial philosophy) transcend and include the “old” paradigm in ways that make room for the kinds of “anomalous” events experienced by millions of people around the world?

Paradigms have great potency. They are, in effect, the framework of beliefs and assumptions that shape our understanding of reality and how we fit in. This potency is amplified because for the most part the beliefs we inherit from the paradigm are unconscious.

As long as we are unaware of them we have little or no power to choose to do or believe anything different. That’s why it is so difficult to “shift” a paradigm. In fact, we cannot as individuals shift a paradigm because it is a collective phenomenon.

But we can honor our own experiences and refuse to deny or invalidate them just because the dominant paradigm has no place for them. If we do stand by our own experiences and are willing to communicate and live by them, then we play our part in “seeding” the paradigm with “anomalies” that, sooner or later, will accumulate to the point where the old paradigm buckles under their weight, and crumbles. At that point, a paradigm shift occurs. But it is beyond our control.

We make the shift in ourselves by following the process I’ve outlined above:

1. Become aware of the elements of the current dominant paradigm (materialism/mechanism).

2. Become aware of elements of what seem to be an “emerging” paradigm (e.g., systems holism and the perennial philosophy).

3. Observe and note any personal experiences that do not fit the “old” paradigm.

4. Look to see if our “anomalous” experiences are aligned with elements of the “emerging” paradigm.

5. Cultivate the practice of experience beyond belief to liberate ourselves from “buying into” a whole new set of limiting beliefs.

Which leads me to the next question . . .

Changing Beliefs

Q: You ask us to take a look at our current beliefs, so I do. Most of my beliefs seem sensible and grounded, but a few are clearly ridiculous, and I want to change these beliefs. Any suggestions about how to go about this?

I’m not sure you have quite grasped the essential point I’ve been making about “experience beyond belief.” Yes, by all means examine your current beliefs. Even better, observe the process by which you turn experiences into beliefs:

experience —> interpretation —> belief —> dogma —> action.

The point is not whether our beliefs are “sensible and grounded” (many of them are). The point is that they are beliefs. And beliefs are the residue of expired experiences; they are fragments, habits of thought, and may have no bearing on what is actually occurring in our moment-by-moment experience.

So, what I’m suggesting is that for psycho-spiritual liberation, changing our beliefs is not enough. We need to get beyond beliefs by learning to experience our experience as it is happening. Cultivation of this practice involves learning to identify with and to focus attention on our experiences rather than on our beliefs. (This involves unlearning what we are taught by our educational system and wider culture). So, my mantra is: Cultivate experience beyond belief.

[See Radical Knowing for more on this.]


Experience Beyond Belief

Q: I know who I am, and I know God and reality by my beliefs. Without beliefs I would know nothing.

I suggest it’s the opposite: Holding onto beliefs is what blocks you from really knowing who you really are or what reality is.

Therefore, I encourage you to give up attachment to your beliefs (not any belief in particular—but to beliefs in general—and especially those cherished beliefs you just know to be true).

Beliefs are habits of mind, frozen fragments of consciousness. They are static snapshots of reality. Even if we change them, beliefs cannot embrace the dynamics of ever-changing reality. In short, our beliefs (all our beliefs—yours, mine, everyone’s) inevitably and automatically distort reality. So, a good spiritual practice is to let them go.

We can’t help having beliefs (it’s what our minds are evolved to do, and they do that job very well). But we can choose whether or not to be attached to our beliefs. We can choose whether or not we believe our beliefs. I’m encouraging you not to believe your beliefs. Rather, I suggest that you learn to notice them, and then release them.

Wisdom resides in our moment-to-moment experience, not in our beliefs. As habits of mind, beliefs are conditioned by the past. Experience, on the other hand, always occurs in the present moment—now.

I’ll meet you there . . .

Belief is not Truth

Q: I’ve been brought up to believe that my beliefs are my truth. And the new quantum paradigm teaches us that beliefs create reality. Yet you seem to be saying that our beliefs are not a guide to what is true.

First, quantum science has nothing to say about beliefs, and does not support the idea that beliefs create reality. That’s just a “pop” distortion of some complex and profound ideas emerging from quantum physics.

People believe all sorts of things, but that doesn’t make them true. Belief does not equal truth.

People used to believe the world was flat. Many people still believe God is a man with a white beard sitting on a throne in the sky. Some people believe in the tooth fairy. Some people believe the holocaust never happened. A great many people believe their particular religion is “the” one and only way to salvation. Some people believe in God. Some people don’t believe in God. Who’s right?

They can’t all be right, right? God either exists or does not (there can’t be an in between). Simply believing in something doesn’t bring it into being—otherwise God would be popping in and out of existence moment by moment at the whims of the beliefs of theists and atheists. That would make God little more than a puppet dancing to the differing beliefs of humans.

Holding dearly to the belief that beliefs are true, doesn’t make it so.

So experiment: Just try out living for a few days as if your beliefs may not be true. What would that be like? Would you disappear? Would you be lost? Would you lose your identity? Would you die? Or would you feel a new sense of liberation because instead of beliefs you begin to trust your actual experience moment to moment (being careful, of course, not to turn those experiences into new beliefs!)? Try it. You might be surprised.

In my forthcoming book, Consciousness: From Zombies to Angels, I explore more deeply this relationship between beliefs, experience, and reality. Getting beyond your beliefs is one of the seven steps to knowing who you really are.

You can pre-order a copy by clicking here:

consciousness, consciousness studies, mind, cosmos, nature, belief, evolution, panpsychism, quantum, science, spirituality, cosmology, intelligent design, miracles, explanations, intuition, four gifts, energy, information, idealism, god, truth, wisdom, humans, interspecies, zombies, angels, materialism, dualism, ontology, epistemology, experience, process, time, Consciousness, Beliefs, Intention, Experience, Reality