Quote:
Originally Posted by Angela  Ignoring, for me, signals willful rejection of reality -- turning your back on what's real. I don't think ALG uses the word that way though, do you, ALG? |
But I really do mean "ignore", Angela. Let me elaborate.
Suppose you go to a bookstore. You want to buy something to read. You quickly glance at 100 different titles on the shelves. In the end, you pick two books that look interesting to you; you pay for them, and you leave.
What has happened? 100 books had offered themselves into your reality. You accepted only two of them. You had ignored 98. And so it is, for all the other aspects of your life. All of us are continuously filtering reality. We selectively focus on certain things, and we ignore the rest.
Now, the amount of consciousness we bring to this process can vary considerably. A lot of our filtering is unconscious.
In other words, we don't realise
that we are letting in, and we don't realise
that we are shutting out.
Furthermore we don't realise
what we are letting in, and we don't realise
what we are shutting out.
Consequently we often tend to believe that we are in touch with "objective reality", when in fact all we're really in touch with is what we let in.
Filtering is pretty much inevitable, because reality is much too complex and overwhelming for us to take in as a whole (furthermore our five senses are inherently filters, and so is our human brain - but let's not get too esoteric here).
The point I want to make here is that just
realising that we're constantly letting in, and shutting out, is very important. And it is important whether or not you believe in the "magical" or "paranormal" aspects of LOA.
Because that realisation allows us to bring a higher degree of
consciousness to the process. And that is always helpful and useful.
Consider any conventional time management system that you may use, say, while you're at work in your office. Almost invariably, the TM system will involve some kind of list of "things to do", plus some way to prioritise the items on the list. You then take action on the high priority items, and leave aside the low priority items for later (if ever).
That's a kind of filtering. With a relatively higher degree of consciousness. You are deliberately focusing on the things that you judge to be important, and ignoring the things that you judge to be not important.
-- Part 2 coming up.