What is reality?

Seth's first and primary reason for engaging us through Jane Roberts was to make us aware of a most basic truth: You create your own reality. He has dedicated an entire book The Nature of Personal Reality: Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know to this premise that underlies our lives as human beings.

What do you think this statement means? Is it a karma thing--the results of your actions will come back to haunt (or delight) you? A bad attitude means bad things happen to you?

It's not so much what you do but what you believe--deep down--about your self, others, about how the world works. What kinds of things do you say to yourself under your breath? What kinds of thoughts/behaviors/beliefs are you reinforcing? When you catch a reflection of yourself do you say to yourself "God I'm ugly or fat or ridiculous"? If you are a woman, do you secretly think you are not worth as much in society as a man? If you are a man, do you feel like you should be more successful, more manly? Do you believe in devils and demons and hell? Heaven? Do you believe there is life after death and you have lived before? Does the soul live on or do you dissipate into the ether when your body ceases to function? How do these beliefs affect the way you live every day?

The real deep down answers to these questions can only be determined by you and it takes some digging--or so I've found. It is frankly shocking to uncover some of these unexamined core beliefs. Things that would be hard to admit to yourself let alone others. All of these beliefs form your world and how you perceive yourself in it.

Seth says:

“Your beliefs form reality. Your individual beliefs and your joint beliefs. Now the intensity of a belief is extremely important...

And, if you believe, in very simple terms, that people mean you well, and will treat you kindly, they will. And, if you believe that the world is against you, then so it will be in your experience. And, if you believe...IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL BEGIN TO DETERIORATE AT 22, then so you shall.

And, if you believe that you are poor, and always will be, then so your experience will so prove to you. Your beliefs meet you in the face when you look in the mirror. They form your image. You cannot escape your beliefs. They are, however, the method by which you create your experience.

It is important that you here realize that you are not at the mercy of the unexplainable, that you are not at the mercy of events over which you have no control whether those events are psychological events or physical ones, in your terms.

As I have told you, there is little difference if you believe that your present life is caused by incidents in your early infancy or by past lives over which equally you feel you have no control. Your events, your lives, your experiences, are caused by your present beliefs. Change the beliefs and your life changes.”

If you'd like to see things happen differently in your life, you should begin to examine closely your beliefs. Start by identifying those things that seem elusive to you (e.g.--I never was good at managing money.) Why is that? Do you value money? In what way? Do you believe that those who are wealthy are less virtuous than yourself? Or the opposite--if you have money do you believe that the less privileged/poor are being punished for something? Examine any underlying religious beliefs. Look at those things that tend to send up red flags from within. Look at everything that stimulates dissatisfaction in your life. You will uncover some interesting things and maybe wonder where these beliefs came from.

Next time, more on our" reality liability".