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Belief Systems, the Microsoft of the Mind
by Jonathan Caflisch (2002)
In order to understand where we are in our times, why we have wars and political
discord, we need to understand that we are living in a hierarchical system which has been
handed down by old religious beliefs which we unquestioningly accepted as reality. The
hierarchical system is designed to control people or the masses, either with politics or
religion or both, and it appears in all kind of forms in our civilization.
Hierarchical systems are characterized by a power shift to the top. It is a pyramid system
and the consequences are that people are of unequal value, either dominated or submissive to
each other, with confused roles and blurred identity. The hierarchical view creates
powerlessness. People seek power over one another and end up feeling isolated. Fear, anger,
resentments and distrust dictate our lives. The hierarchic model has dominated world thinking
for thousands of years. With today's in-vogue language, we could say that we have been
operating according to ancient software. The results of this ancient software in our world
are obvious: we are on the brink of self-destruction. Originally this system may have been
creative and brought some order into the world, but now it has outgrown itself and has become
destructive.
We need to evolve from this hierarchic model to a growth model. While the hierarchic model
removes power from the individual, in the growth model the person is empowered by keen
awareness of choices and their effects. Whereas in the hierarchical model things happen to
us, in the growth model we can see that we are creating our own reality individually and
en masse. In the hierarchical model 'perceived' reality is viewed as the truth, whereas in
the growth model, it is questioned how we created it.
In the hierarchical model, in order to make distinctions, we lose ourselves in the concepts
of good and evil. This has trained us to think in black and white so that we fail to see the
colors in between. We have created two opposing poles that manifest themselves in dualistic
reality. We needed to have opposites in order to make distinctions but we have now created
two entities (God and the Devil) from those distinctions and then given them the power to
rule us. We need to see that positive and negative flow into each other, similar to
electricity, so that it takes the interaction of both to make our experience. In human
terms, it provides the rich bed of personal growth. The conflict created between capitalism
and communism is a good example of how we fail to create systems that are able to respond
holistically to human needs. This creation of a dualistic system, caused by the idea that
God and the Devil are two separate energies has literally split our psyche in two.
If you actually believe there is good and evil, then this will manifest into a projection
that there is evil out in the world. It makes it impossible to own all aspects of ourselves
because the ideal of good is set too high. We cannot accept all our parts fully and
therefore project our dark or unknown side onto others. We need to learn to recognize and let
go of such dogmatic beliefs or we keep creating more paranoia, schizophrenia and other health
problems related to this belief. This dogma has also has led us to a complete
misunderstanding of aggression.
We need to let go of our old status quo. In order to do that we need to understand that we
have created the world we live in with our belief systems. Our beliefs create our reality.
Those ideas are not new. When Christ was asked by his own people "Why are you not leading an
army against the Romans to liberate us?" he said. "I have come to teach you something much
more powerful." Unfortunately the Christian church misinterpreted Christ's message of inner
empowerment and taught us that the essence of power is outside of ourselves. Today political,
military, medical and most other systems are hierarchical.
The medical system is in actuality, with all good intention, disempowering people. We are
always looking outside of ourselves for any cause of illness, but we fail to look within.
We do not use our tremendous resource of our own minds and fail to see the effects of our
thinking. We are always trying to find the answer in the objectified world. In this
system our own thoughts become meaningless outside of self-gratification. It appears that we
live in a world of chaos and survival of the fittest. This belief is so engrained in us that
we rather fight instead of looking within, whether it be in a personal relationship or on
a global scene. We do not turn inwards to our own resources. We are still having problems
believing that our body and mind is connected.
We need to give the idea a chance that maybe reality is a biofeedback system of our internal
world. The journey to the self is the path for world peace. We need to do it for ourselves
first. For even a slightly increased awareness en masse will make war impossible. Peace
within is the journey to the self. The true self is an ever-changing identity pending on
action and the process is eternal. The discovery and learning new ways of being accepting of
what is and using it as a resource is the most exciting endeavor we can journey on. The
rewards are great. It does not matter were you are, you can always improve your experience
by knowing your internal process. We are a manifestation of universal energy. We are sacred,
we are spirits, and we are spiritual. It is only our beliefs, which separate us from feeling
our own state of grace. We live in a wonderful magical body no matter how we are perceived
by others. My body feels; my body gives me biofeedback of my internal process; my body is
my spirit guide; and my body and I are one.
- Jonathan
Ancient Sandscript 'Namaste'
I honor the place in you were the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you, which
is love, of truth, of light and peace. When you are in this place in you and I am in
that place in me, we are one.
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