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Herbert
continues, “Every one of us is a powerful
creator, every one of us is constantly in the
state of becoming, and what we become is a
function of our dominant thoughts, beliefs,
attitudes, words, and actions.
Within this creative process, there’s a
critical piece that most people miss.”
“What’s
that?” I ask.
“It
involves feelings.
In addition to thoughts, what we become
is also a function of how we feel about whatever
it is that we give our thoughts to.
If we think about something we would like
to be, do or have while in a joy-filled state of
anticipation and expectancy, we are bringing it
to us.
If we think about that same thing while
feeling sad or angry that we don’t have it, we
are pushing it away and creating not having it.
"Why's
that?" I ask.
"Because
your focus on not-having-the-thing-you-want
is also a message to the universe.
That message says, 'Bring me more not-having'."
And the universe simply follows the law.
The result is you get more 'not having'.
We cannot turn off our creative capacity.
The only thing we can do is choose what
we shall create.
Most of us simply do our creating
unconsciously, and then look for someone or
something outside of ourselves to blame for
what’s wrong in our lives.
Stoney, may I ask you a couple of direct
question in this regard?”
“Certainly,”
I respond.
“Is
this concept more than just a nice idea in your
life?
Are the words you speak and listen to in
harmony with this principle?
Are your attitudes and your actions in
harmony with this principle?
Is the way you feel about your thoughts
in harmony with this principle?
In other words, do you intentionally
apply The Law of Thought to your life?"
“I
can’t say that I do.”
“Well,
I do.
And my doing so has been one of the major
factors contributing to my success.
Let me say this principle in still
another way.
In
every waking moment, we are creating or altering
our future.
Our lives are a product of our dominant
thoughts, including our visualizations, our
intentions, our emotions, our feelings, our
beliefs, our attitudes, our expectations, what
we will (or will not) allow ourselves to
experience, our spoken words, and our physical
actions.”
“You
just listed about ten items, but only one
involves physically doing anything.
Why is that?”
“Because
the first cause of everything that we experience
is in our minds, and our minds are in the
non-physical part of ourselves.”
“Isn’t
my mind in my head?”
“No!
Your brain is in your head.
No scientific study has yet found a
physical location for the human mind.”
“Why
is that?”
“Because,
like I just said, our minds are in that
indefinable, non-physical part of our selves.
And it’s in that non-physical part of
us where we experience visualizations,
intentions, emotions, feelings, beliefs,
attitudes, expectations.
This is where we decide what we will (or
will not) allow ourselves to experience.
These are all aspects of thought.”
“What
about words?” I ask
“Words
are simply spoken thoughts.” The nature and the power of spoken thoughts is even
clearly stated in the Christian Bible.
‘In the beginning was the word and the
word was with God, and the word was God’.”(John
1:1)
I
say, “The Mind and God and Words all seem to
be blending into one.”
“Yes,
that’s how I see it, but many others see
things quite differently.
In spite of the clear biblical statement
I just quoted to you, some will even take
offense at such a suggestion.”
“Why?”
“Because
it implies that human beings have the power of
God, and most people cannot accept themselves as
being that powerful.”
At
this point, Jazbell interjected with, “Jesus said, ‘Anything I do you can do and more.’
That sounds pretty much like Godly power
to me.”
Herbert
continues, “From my perspective, I see God as
the name many people use when referring to the
nonphysical part of themselves.
“So,”
I ask, “what’s the problem with that?”
“The
problem is that with Godly power comes Godly
responsibility, and responsibility is one of
those issues that most people hide under
mountains of denial.
But we’re getting off track again.
Let’s, as you, yourself, would say,
‘hold denial and responsibility as another
story for another day’.”
“OK,”
I say. “Let’s
talk about actions.
Are actions important?”
“Of
course, actions are important. Without physical action nothing happens.
Every man-made thing on this
entire planet, without exception, started with a
human thought and is the product of human
action.
Actions are also important for another
not-so-obvious reason.”
“And
what is that?”
“A
significant portion of the power that comes from
our physical activity is due to the additional
thoughts and emotions that our actions generate.
And for each one of us, thoughts and how
we feel while thinking those thoughts are the
first cause of what we experience in our
lives.“
“Are
you saying every thought manifests into
something physical?”
“No.
As I said a moment ago, our lives are a
product of our dominant thoughts and our
dominant attitudes and emotions.
What we experience is a blending of our
thoughts, attitudes, emotions,
etc.
Our thoughts often conflict and
counter-balance each other, so the physical
experiences we manifest are a combination of
multiple thoughts and not the consequences of a
single thought.”
“Can
you give an example, please?”
“Certainly.
If you say, ‘I desire a new car,’ and
then add, ‘but they’re too
expensive!’ you’ve just created a new car
and then created not having a new car, all in
the same sentence. The desire for a new car attracts it, and the thought
of it being so expensive pushes it away and,
thus, creates not having a new car.
Your future reality will be a function of
those two opposing thoughts.
Because they cancel each other out, there
is a constant vacillation between having and not
having the car.
Whichever end of that duality you think
about most frequently and with the strongest
emotion will become your physical reality.
Symbolically,
look at this idea as if each of your thoughts is
a container of water that
you pour into your swimming pool and each thing
you experience is a container of water that you
take back out.
In the pool all your thoughts blend
together, so the more muddy, yucky thoughts you
put in, the muddier the water that you take back
out.”
“That
sounds like my computer-loving friend who says
‘garbage in, garbage out’.”
“It
is. And
the more clear, positive, joyous, abundant and
loving thoughts you put in, the more clear,
positive, joyous, abundant and loving
experiences you take back out.”
I
ask, "What about attracting the things
we fear?
What
we attract is a product of our thoughts
empowered by our emotions regardless of the
content of the thought, so if you think about
something with strong fear, you are inviting it
to be one of your future experience.
“Please
tell me how do emotions fit into this law?”
“Think
of highly emotional thoughts as big buckets of
water being dumped into your pool, and
non-emotional thoughts as small cups of water.
Emotions are what connect us to the
universal power behind our thoughts.
The stronger the emotion, the more power
there is behind the thought.”
“Why
is that?”
“Why
is water wet?
Why is the fire hot?
Why is sex enjoyable?
Who knows?
All I can say is, that’s the way the
universe functions.”
“So
you’re saying I’m totally responsible for
all those yucky things I’ve experienced in my
life?”
“Yes.”
“Let
me play devil’s advocate for a moment and say,
‘That can’t be so.
I would never intentionally have created all those painful
experiences’.”
“I
didn’t say you created them on purpose.
What I did say is that what you
experienced in your life was a product of your
thoughts, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, words
and actions.
Whether your thoughts, words, and actions
were conscious and intentional or unconscious
and mechanical is irrelevant.
And, regardless of who else was involved
with you in those experiences, you, and you
alone, empowered the universe to bring those
experiences into your life.
If you’re like most of us, you created
the vast majority of your experiences
unconsciously, unintentionally, by accident
and/or by default.”
“I
did?”
“Yes.”
Herbert continues, “You did so by repeatedly
thinking about those things, by believing they
were possible for you to experience, and by
holding strong emotional feeling about them.
And, in regard to empowering your
thoughts, the universe does not distinguish
between negative and positive emotions. The empowering emotions may have been fear or worry,
loathing, anger or some other negative emotions.
Emotions empower whatever you think about.
Whether you want that experience or not
is irrelevant.
So, if you repeatedly put out
emotion-laden thoughts about something, make
room for it in your life, for sooner or later,
it will almost certainly show up.”
"But
I have feared or worried about or strongly
desired lots of things that never showed up.
How come?”
“I
just answered that with the swimming pool
analogy.
Not every individual thought shows up.
Rather it’s a blending of all your
thoughts.
Like I just said, if your dominant
thoughts were about not having your desired
whatever, you got the
not-having
instead
of the having.“
“So
you’re saying that I’m a mechanical man
doing most of my life on auto-pilot.”
“Yeah.
Just like all the rest of us, but then,
that’s the nature of living in a human body on
planet Earth at this time.”
“You
just said I created some of my experiences by
default.
What did you mean?”
“Creating
by default is allowing other people or your
environment to influence and alter what you
think about and how you feel.
How many conversations have you listened
to regarding someone else’s negative
experiences? How many films or TV shows have you watched about
things you wouldn’t want in your life?
How many news items have you read,
listened to or watched about someone’s grief,
pain or misery?
There are always others who will gladly
tell you what to think, so if you don’t take
charge of what you think about, you get whatever
comes along.”
“Okay,”
I say.
“So how do I become an intentional
creator?”
“Good
question.
Discussing the third principle will make
that clearer.”
“And
that principle is. . .”
End
of Chapter Fourteen -- The Universal Law of Thought
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