[pokilty]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

... What I believe is very maleable is internal reality, which means that as you begin to put some effort into directing external affairs, your internal mental reality changes in subtle but powerful ways, with the general result that you now think you are actually creating (external, or 'real' as some people call it) 'reality'. ... It is because of this maleability of our internal model of reality, our vulnerability to self-delusion, that we must doubt our 'intuitions' and, if there is a method, check them out. ....

This explanation makes a lot of sense to me, and it pleases my intuition, which is definitely a good feeling. I tend to lean toward a "subjective reality" interpretation, and I think what you say here hits that very well

Originally Posted by wolfgang

I think any ideas or thoughts of having LoA respond to our imagination may be more like precognition. The "effort" of sitting and imagining something is really us picking up on something that is to be - something that is already in the works. It is not our little brain mass generating it - our brains and emotions are responding to life and even the things we think we are controlling or exerting free will over or having decisions about are part of life and our bodies and brains are picking up what life is. It's not an external force that's not us, like giving it up to an external God being, but it is us in the grander sense. ...

I think what you're saying here is similar to what John Freestone is saying, which is that the power of LoA affects our perception of reality rather than reality itself. That is certainly different to me than religion, because religion attempts to explain reality absolutely.

Originally Posted by cylon

Finally, If LOA is NOT making you feel excited, hopeful, but confused and doubtful, then those are moments of your life you don't get back. They are too valuable. My advice would be to find whatever it is that can help you to feel at peace. Considering that this is probably the best way to experience LOA ANYWAY, you can't lose by just focusing on feeling good in life.

Thank you, I think I was waiting to hear that. I do want to try LoA a bit longer since after reading these responses I feel like I have more direction than I did before. But, there are certainly things I have been trying with my life lately that have produced reliable results that I'll return to soon.

Originally Posted by cylon

Get busy with your experience, your own experiments. Nothing is fun about having a belief system wrapped up in a nice bow that you take at face value. Tear off the wrapping paper, take the thing out of the box, get out your screwdriver, take it apart, put it back together and see if it still works, or see if you can make it do something you didn't think it was supposed to do. Make it your OWN.

This is really powerful, I love the attitude. It's what I'm aiming for right now.

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Actually, I hope you guys don't mind if I go a little off topic, but I'd like to explain what I mean when I said that I can find energy from other things. I realized that I was becoming one of those who spends countless hours reading about personal productivity, but never actually doing it - so I knew I had to change. Right now, the biggest thought pattern I've been trying is a threefold way to live my life that I found really improves areas I've been having trouble in:

(1) Use intuition -- Whenever I'm unsure about what I should be doing, or how I should behave, I just use my intuition rather than my logic. It's a big change for me, since I've trusted my logic and shut out my intuition my whole life, but it's so far proven to be much MORE reliable than my logic.

(2) Just do it -- This attitude really packs a punch for me. It's not a question, it's not worrying, it's a command. And I've found that almost all my regrets stem from not "doing it".

(3) Visualization -- Sometimes I get into a really bad slump where saying "just do it" to myself doesn't cut it. That's where I use visualization as a tool to remind myself of the long term goals, big picture and rewards. It's a great way to get motivated and back on track with the plan

Some examples of what I've achieved lately are going to the gym, meeting many new people, connecting with old friends on a deeper level, speaking out when I normally wouldn't, and generally feeling more confident in myself instead of relying on the social situation. It's also made me more productive since I get things done, and it seems to have a feedback-loop of searching for better ways to do things, which in turns prompts me to improve the model even further.

The results seem as magical as what I hear about LoA, which is what prompted me to revisit this again. I wonder if there's a connection somewhere Right now I feel like LoA might be a suitable replacement for visualization, since thoughts in LoA are perceived to be inevitable, whereas in visualization the thoughts are just desirable.