Beliefs and Powers of Suggestion

Today we begin the subject of beliefs, and our objective is to come to a clearer understanding of how beliefs control our lives. I am quite free to use the word "our" here because it applies to both your world and ours. There is no more constructive, or destructive, force in the physical or psychic world than that of personal and collective beliefs. You can believe that without fear of being wrong. Our most important attitude comprises the image in which each of us...you, I, or any reader, may see ourselves. We have a self-image in which we see ourselves at all times. The image may change in different roles we play; it may be excellent in one situation and very negative in others. We may see our personality or physical ability as successful or as a failure, dependent upon the beliefs we have built up over a lifetime. These beliefs may be factual or false. Our self-image will be as accurate or as misleading as the beliefs upon which it is established.

We go through life acting out roles that support the image, and thereby reinforce the beliefs we carry. Very often the beliefs have little or no relationship to fact, but nevertheless they establish, control, and direct the patterns of life. People like to believe that they live very realistic lives, in a very realistic society, based of the facts and events of life.

We believe we are victims of circumstance, living in a very factual world, where events are pretty much beyond our control. That is a basic belief. Now the fact of the situation is that we, for the most part, create our own reality. We bring events, that we choose to support our beliefs, into reality. We create the environment, to a large extent, in which we live, and we choose even the types of people we will be most likely to encounter and work with. The fact is that, to a very large extent, we create our own reality to support the beliefs we hold about ourselves.

We should point out here in passing that the power of beliefs to shape our lives does not cease by any means at physical death. Beliefs and self- images that we hold on this side are as powerful and as controlling as they ever were in the physical world. Here, we be11eve very much as we did over there. Hopefully we will learn, and expand, and grow here to acquire a wider range of awareness. The opportunity for expansion of awareness is greater here, but it is still controlled by the beliefs of the individual. No one over here forces anyone to get rid of his or her wrong or false beliefs. Each is free to struggle and to develop a wider range of interests, and to develop a more enlightened personality, but no one is compelled to pick up any new set of ideas against his or her own will. This, you see, is why we make the effort to give the best and most accurate information we can from this side, in the hope that more minds will open to understand the realities of life from this side, in a more enlightened way, before coming over here.

In doing this writing, this is why we prefer to use material from your own thinking; we rework an rearrange it to make it as factual as we know how from here. We add additional information as necessary. We think --we more than believe --that you are getting very factual information. There are many other groups over here who work to present knowledge to the earth. We think that many times very sincere groups get mislead over here because they consist of very much the same background as from earth. For instance, a group whose writings you just examined on the weekend was a very tightly controlled religious group on earth ...they have reassembled the members of that same group over here. You see: the same thinking and beliefs from the earth-life are being reinforced and written back into the earth!

We are very aware in this group of the dangers of feeding back wrong or misleading information. We try not to pass on to you what may be simply our own old personal beliefs or attitudes from earth-life.

In the early part of this writing we stated that our purpose, or our objective, is to create a fresh style of thinking on a personal (individual) level in the earth. We believe that is the only way to break the cycle of feeding back old beliefs into the earth. Very often these old beliefs were not based on fact and, hence, continue to reinforce false ideas and concepts in the earth.

We will at any time come back in the writing and correct any section where we see that we are creating a wrong or misleading idea. It is our objective to establish in the earth good, clear ideas, based on facts where possible, or on sound principles, on a personal basis. We do not believe (a belief, which may not be a fact!) that organizations, such as societies, or religions, or cults, or whatever, are of too much value in the earth, on the long haul. They tend to harden their sets of beliefs into dogmas, creeds, and statements of faith, which no member is allowed to question or examine. Any organization anywhere that is not willing, openly and freely, to reexamine its sets of beliefs and to change them if necessary is, in our opinion, of limited value to the purpose and growth of its individual members. Many of these groups and organizations are a stumbling block to the development and growth of its members. The purpose of any such group, religion, faith, or society surely should be to act as an open highway, along and through which its members may have the opportunity and assistance they need to develop and grow.

We try not to confine you with dogma or creeds. We try to open any doors we can at your request; we will give you the very best information we have on the subjects of your choice. We would add that we like your choices so far. It is not our aim to restrict or confine anyone to any set of beliefs. If we give you information of the nature of a personal belief we will say that "it is our opinion". Believe me, in this group opinions are examined in the open light of day before they are passed on to earth in any form.

Modern man likes to think that he lives in accord with very precise decisions made out of a clear and skilled mind without any influence from emotions, beliefs, or self-images. This is his dream; in reality he creates most of the conditions surrounding him; he chooses subconsciously, ahead of time, the people or types of people he will encounter in life; he decides what role he will play, very much based on the way he chooses to see himself. We need to be careful here. The way he chooses to see himself may not be at all the way he would like to be seen. He may see himself as a failure, for example, while he dreams of being a success. The image he has of himself as a failure will be born out in reality. He will create conditions and failures to prove his own self-image. If he could change his self-image to one of more success he would change his reality also to support the new self-image.

The reason it is so difficult to understand that a belief is not necessarily a fact-of-life is because the psyche of the person will set out to bring the image, contained in the belief, into reality and into life.

Here is the bottom line in this area of life: man is not, nor was he ever intended to be the victim of circumstance. It was intended for man to create, and to work out, his reality and role in life, in harmony with his higher-mind and his will. He was intended to be creative in working out, and bringing into effect, the realities he needed to gain the desired experiences to achieve the goals and purposes of his life.

(Everything we have said, or will say, this morning using the words "he" and "his" could have been written equally effectively and accurately using the words "she" and "her".)

Many will not accept the above statement concerning the intention for man to create his own reality. They should, at least, be willing to open the mind sufficiently to make an effort and to test the water a little. Do not see yourself as a victim of life entirely. Get the image of a dead fish floating down a river toward the ocean; that is a victim of circumstance. You have all the equipment, energy, and power necessary to direct and control your life, to achieve its objectives, to experience the living you require in this life on earth. No god. or man. or devil has the given right to prevent you from achieving the purpose of your life.

You may say ...many will say, "that is just your belief, it is not a fact." Well, my answer is that having viewed life very carefully from both sides now, it is my belief that this is a fact. You must, each one in his or her own mind, decide what to accept into your pattern of beliefs and what not to believe. Why not make some little test for yourself? Try a little experiment: visualize some little change in your life ...something that will be worth while but is not of life and death importance.

I want to digress here for a moment. To ensure there is no misunderstanding as to who is digressing whom, it is Granger (from the other side, you know?) that is doing the digressing. I want to use a couple of little examples of creating reality in physical terms. Feltmate (whom I am writing through, using his mind and hand) decided once a few years ago to have a picture window in his dining room. He didn't know how to go about cutting out a brick wall or how to install a window. However, he made a very specific test case for himself by visualizing for several mornings in succession, a window in the room. He could see in his mind (as I can see it in his mind) a window; he could see in his mind, the scene beyond the window. Now, to make a long story short, the window is here in all its physical reality. It didn't just appear at no cost ...some decisions and money were involved. The point is, however, that from the visualizing, the mind began to seek out the right people and circumstance to bring the window into physical reality. It is not very well understood how the mind has real power to bring events into real physical reality. Of course, it is not very well understood either, how a group of "dead people" can be sitting around in the morning talking about installing windows! That too, is something worth thinking about.

The second example of the value of visualizing I will use involves my good friend here again. He decided recently, at age fifty-five, to learn to type ...a late starter, but better a late starter than a never ran. Anyway, we suggested that he visualize himself typing well and successfully. He has done that ...not as well as he could, but it certainly is paying off. It is not easy to learn to type at this time of life, after not doing any typing for about twenty-five or thirty years. But the ease with which he is learning to type is a direct result of the visualizing, in his mind, of typing easily and well.

When you visualize something you wish to accomplish do not think about how to get there. In your mind, just see yourself there and doing it well ...no "what if's," or "maybe it won't work for me." Just see yourself doing the task, or the event having taken place. Do not start by changing the universe. Keep things within your capacity to visualize, and believe it can be accomplished. And don't try to get rich overnight; this may not fit into the pattern of your lifetime.

Many people believe that beliefs are inherited or transposed from one mind to another. No one can pass on a belief, nor can anyone transplant a belief into another mind. It would be a most serious offence to attempt to "plant" a belief in the mind of another without that individual's consent and awareness.

Now this statement does not apply to the professionally trained specialist, trying to heal the mind from damaging ideas, concepts, and beliefs. That is no different than a surgeon removing a diseased organ from the body. We want to make a point, however, that no teaching of any nature automatically installs a set of beliefs in any mind. This, of course, is the very objective of the evangelist, or the politician, or the leader of any new order with its own specific set of beliefs. We all try, one way or another, to implant our own pet ideas and beliefs into the minds of others. There is no way that this can be done directly ...nor should it ever be attempted. We may present good, factual information; we may show good reason why our beliefs should be accepted. But we should never attempt to force, through fear or threat. our personal beliefs into the mind of another.

Maybe if we go to an example of the bottom line of this sort of situation, you will get more clearly the idea we want to present. Whenever a witch-doctor, or that sort of soothsayer, or medicine-man, wants to put the real "whammy" on a member of his group or tribe, he will give a "death-wish". He may present this death-wish through ESP, into the mind of the individual and, in all likelihood, that individual will die. Members of the group will say he died from "the curse" presented by the witch-doctor or holy-man. The fact is that the witch-doctor has no more power than anyone else over other people or their minds. He knows a few clever things, however. He knows that if, through use of his power, he can convince anyone that he has the power to kill them by a curse, they will respond to that belief in the mind of the victim, and will respond to the extent that they may die, or become insane, or violently ill. Note that the curse need not be delivered verbally; it may be delivered by ESP or mental-images to the mind of the intended victim. The victim will receive the well prepared and well dispatched message from ESP just as clearly as he or she would receive a verbal message.

This little situation illustrates the fantastic power of beliefs. Suggestions given to the mind under hypnosis may be just as powerful. This is why there is great need to control and regulate the use of hypnosis. Be aware that hypnosis is no little parlour-game to be playing around with ...much safer to play games with a loaded gun; with the gun you at least see what you are playing with. The danger with hypnosis lies in the situation where the mind has been directly opened to receive and accept the idea being planted, where normal conditions would not let the suggestion get past the critical level of the brain. Under hypnosis the mind is allowed direct and open access to suggestions or beliefs. This is a very dangerous game to play, except when used by a highly skilled specialist who understands the functioning of the human mind.

The mind is subject to suggestions from many sources. These sources may present ideas and concepts that are in conflict with each other, or with concepts already present In the mind. When this happens we have a mild, or maybe serious, state of confusion in the mind. There are many complications of this nature in every mind, of course; however, the situation may develop into an extreme condition where the mental anguish builds up to a point where the mind may seek out or develop extreme ways of coping with the situation. We may find, for example, that the individual begins to hallucinate, or a split-personality may develop. We cannot cope here with these extreme conditions; what we do want to do, however, is point out the need to recognize the power of conflicting beliefs.

The results of conflicting beliefs may be very difficult to correct. In many situations the results could have been avoided by resolving the conflicting sets of beliefs. The two sets of beliefs were, in all probability, in error in the first place, or there was an underlying error contributing to one of the beliefs. Guilt of some form is almost always present in a situation of conflicting beliefs. We can only point out this problem situation and suggest that recognition be given to it in time, by the individual, to have it resolved early. Do not neglect serious conflicts in beliefs; they are powerful elements of energy and have great potential for harm.

We have explored a wide range of material concerning beliefs, visualizing, hypnosis, and related powers of suggestion in a very brief way. Our objective here is to bring this area of the mind and personality into focus in the hope that readers will pursue the subject on their own. There are many good books available on the subject, and we suggest that you should read one or two for your own education and benefit.