Deception, Reality and Other Illusions

[Acting Like Godot]

I have an uncle. The ambitious, naive and gullible sort. About a year ago, he entered into a new business venture with X, on terms that seemed too good to be true. All my uncle had to do was plonk in the money, and X would do everything else, and deliver superb monthly returns.

On a closer look, there were indeed many suspicious elements in the venture. Many of my relatives (including my parents) warned this uncle of mine. They repeatedly told him that X was out to con him; or that something was otherwise wrong etc etc. My uncle brushed all of them off, said that they just didn't believe that he would succeed in life, said that X was a good guy, blah blah blah.

For some time, my uncle did receive good monthly returns from the business venture. Then things started to go wrong. I'll spare you the long details. The conclusion is - one year later, it transpires that X is a con man. There's a list of seven or eight lawsuits taken out against him by different people, including a few banks. It also turns out that X is a bankrupt, and has been for quite a few years, a fact that he concealed carefully from my uncle and the other victims.

It's unlikely now that my uncle will recover more than a fraction of the money he lost (since X is a bankrupt).

[Acting Like Godot]

From a LOA perspective, the interesting question is how my uncle attracted this experience into his reality. In fact, at the earlier stages, he had complete confidence in X; believed that X was honest, capable and talented; had a lot of faith that the business venture would turn out well etc.

Early this morning, I meditated on the above question and received a compelling explanation from my deeper mind. The answer is not limited to situations of deliberate deception and dishonesty, but also explains the endless generation and re-generation of illusions that comprise our "reality".

This answer also reveals some of the deeper challenges of using the LOA. But from this answer, we might also glean some insights and tips into how to use the LOA with greater precision.

I will share some parts of this answer later ....

[Lil Chris]

I'm Looking forward to your posts...

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by Lil Chris

I'm Looking forward to your posts...

ALG's got a way of setting up a cliffhanger

[Acting Like Godot]

It is difficult to explain ....

I know what I know, but it is difficult to put it into words.

I think I shall not explain it.

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

It is difficult to explain ....

I know what I know, but it is difficult to put it into words.

I think I shall not explain it.

Manifestation Experiment - Easy Way to Learn About LOA /

You did set an intention to "share some parts of this answer later" though

[Acting Like Godot]

Well, maybe I can put it this way. It's illusions on the way down. There are illusions that are "more true", and illusions that are "more false", but it's basically illusions all the way down (until you arrive at some very fundamental awareness like "all things are interconnected" or "I don't exist").

Consider the blue feather experiment. Many people have tried it. Once in a while, someone gets a literal blue feather dropping at their feet. But most of the time, they get a blue feather on a stranger's hat; or an image of a blue feather on TV; or the picture of a blue feather on a book cover or T-shirt. Not a "real" blue feather.

It is no different for my uncle. He wanted quick money. He didn't want to work for it. He wanted the feeling of pride of being the owner of a business. And for some time, he did get all of that (and if he were a LOA user, we would say that he had successfully manifested his intention). Then the business venture went bust and it became clear that he was the victim of a fraud. By analogy, we could say that he manifested for a blue feather, but merely received an image pr picture of a blue feather.

The important point to understand is that even a "real" blue feather is not real. If you are familiar with Buddhism, then you know what I mean. It is the concept of dependent origination again, and the idea that nothing possesses inherent existence. Any "thing" that exists has parts, and each of those parts has subparts, and each of those subparts has sub-sub-parts, and it is sustained by a wide variety of processes in flux.

And if you see your blue feather in this way, you see that its existence depends on the bird from which it came; which in turn produced the feather only because it had food and water, and then this in turn depends on the weather and sun and insects and trees and rain and clouds and genetic material etc etc etc. And finally you see that your blue feather is connected with the entire universe.

(If you prefer quantum physics, we could say that your "real" blue feather is basically composed of empty space with a few subatomic particles rapidly blinking in and out of existence).

If you understand this, then you understand that whenever you seek to manifest anything, you are pretty much seeking to manifest an illusion. It doesn't matter whether you are seeking to manifest a hundred dollars; or a new lover; or a new job; or better health. It's all an illusion. None of these things inherently exist.

You can try to manifest something very specific. Eg "I want Mary Lilian Watson, who lives at 67, Gratsworth Road, to marry me." But this is still an illusion. As Buddhism has explained, even "Mary Lilian Watson" is a mental concept, because the person you regard as Mary Lilian Watson is basically just a collection of ever-changing thoughts, emotions, molecules and chemical processes (that are ultimately interconnected with the rest of the universe). So what you are seeking to marry is just that fluctuating collection of electrical signals and other ethereal stuff.

All we can say is that there are relative degrees of truth in "illusion". We could say that my uncle's illusion had a very low degree of relative truth. But if indeed X had been an honest person, and the business venture had succeeded, then we would say that my uncle's manifestation was relatively "less false" or had a higher degree of "truth". But it would still be false, because as we know, nothing is permanent, and everything is an illusion anyway.

But as a practical matter, what we can aim for is not merely to manifest our intentions, but to manifest them with a relatively higher degree of truth. (Bearing in mind that it's all ultimately just an illusion anyway, because this entire reality is just something that our little minds dreamed up).

Later I may share some thoughts on how to manifest intentions with a relatively higher degree of truth.

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

If you are familiar with Buddhism, then you know what I mean.

Despite being largely unfamiliar with the subject, I actually do get what you mean; I actually understand well enough to get frustrated at how real those parts of my experience I'm deeply emotionally invested in seem. I wonder if I can ever really "let go", and if being unwilling to do so is a block to manifesting

[themaster]

In truth your uncle got what he wanted.. just as you say LOA worked..

But on a deeper down understanding.. if I understand right.. he knew or inner self knew it was a con a illusion and that he would be playing the part of the victim.. the idea was for your uncle to not get down into the deep.. to not get down in the why me? this is so unfair? this sucks attitude and instead maintain his self-worth.. that is the idea I believe in these tests

The idea was for your uncle not to be a victim.. and in not being a victim nothing was lost.. it will come back around for we all manifest our own abundance

Maybe that is one way to understand this ALG.. but then again it's my understanding there is no inherit meaning here.. only that which we make of it

[Acting Like Godot]

There are other interesting features to my uncle's scenario.

One is that he received plenty of warnings. For example, his own siblings (including my mother) had been strenuously telling him for many months that there was something wrong with the business venture. Now, if we accept that a person attracts all of his own experiences, then we see that my uncle must have been attracting these continuous warnings from his siblings.

In other words, some aspect of my uncle's consciousness recognised X as a fraud. This aspect then manifested itself as concerned relatives who kept warning my uncle about X.

Not a new point, but this reminds us that every person in our respective reality is there for a reason, and the reason is linked to our own thoughts.

[Acting Like Godot]

The next interesting feature is about ..... well, let me just call it the Dominant Thought Pattern.

Let's just say that my uncle has never been a successful man. For many years, he has struggled financially. From the LOA perspective, we might say that his Dominant Thought Pattern here is one of lack.

Then my grandmother died. She was a fairly wealthy woman, and in her will, she gave my uncle a very tidy sum of money. Thus this uncle then started developing strong thoughts of starting his own business and becoming even richer and being his own boss, even though he has no business experience. Let's call this the New Thought Pattern.

The New Thought Pattern attracted X into his reality. X promised him superb monthly returns and X said that my uncle wouldn't have to do anything. Effectively my uncle would be a boss who didn't need to do anything and therefore his lack of business knowledge would be perfectly ok. This was all in line with my uncle's New Thought Pattern, you see.

The problem with the New Thought Pattern is that it clashed with his Dominant Thought Pattern. While the New Thought Pattern successfully created certain new events in my uncle's reality, it was insufficient to overcome the Dominant Thought Pattern, which eventually asserted itself. The subsequent chain of events led to my uncle losing all the inheritance money that he had parked with X. Bringing him back to Square One again.

[Acting Like Godot]

In seeking to manifest our intentions, we therefore have to pay attention to our deeper, underlying thought patterns, especially if we want to make a relatively longer-lasting change in our reality.

It doesn't matter so much if we just want a quick, convenient fix. For example, suppose that for many years, you have been constantly in and out of jobs, and right now, you have lost your job again and your immediate priority is to get a new job. A quick, intense burst of IM sessions could well be sufficient to net you a new job out of the blue.

But if what you really want is to get a job and hold it for a long time, then you need to fix the deeper underlying thought pattern which has been causing you to lose jobs through the years. Otherwise, even if you get a new job with a quick dash of LOA, your deeper underlying thought pattern will soon reassert itself again, causing you to lose your new job.

[Acting Like Godot]

I am reminded now of an experimental intention that I set in December 2008. I actually previously wrote about it on this forum. It was to become an outstanding public speaker.

I meditated on this intention for one session. Just two days later (as I had previously mentioned on this forum), I went to a party and unexpectedly, one of the table games was that someone from each table had to stand up and give an impromptu speech. As you might have guessed, the universe arranged for me to be the one; I delivered a brilliant, funny speech that had everyone in the room cheering and laughing their heads off; and I won the prize for "Best Speech of the Evening".

After this incident, I kinda forgot about my intention; never worked on it again and the months rolled by, without me being asked or required to give any public speech (until very recently, but that's another story).

What do we see here? Well, firstly, the old dominant thought pattern is that my life does not have anything much to do with public speaking. Then I manifested the intention to be an outstanding speaker. Because of my skill with the LOA etc etc, this New Thought Pattern was very quick to assert itself in my reality, taking just two days to land me smack in the middle of a speaking competition (which I actually won).

After that, however, the old dominant thought pattern reasserted itself. And there were no further occasions for me to give any speech.

So the lesson here is that New Thought Patterns need to be carefully nurtured and sustained. If you want deeper effects, you have to nurture the New Thought Pattern until it takes hold in your consciousness and becomes self-sustaining. Otherwise the Old Dominant Thought Pattern will resurface and dominate.

That's what happened to my uncle too.

For me, it didn't matter so much, because not to be required to give many public speeches on a regular basis is really not something that upsets or saddens me. But for my uncle, the resurgence of the Old Dominant Pattern led to consequences which were no doubt a lot more painful.

[newmark]

I think this relates to your earlier post on the problem of using positive thoughts that are too far from what you really believe, thus causing them to be rejected. If you set an intention that is too different from what you really believe the problem you've described will result.
So it's necessary to understand our own deeper thought patterns and then gently lead them in new directions. And eventually in the direction we want.

[StacyT]

I agree with Newmark and ALG...This is the reason we need to reprogram our unhelpful thought patterns with new thoughts (I like to use mantras). At the subatomic level we can create a natural flow of abundance as we gently and slowly change our thought patterns.

And for me, just knowing that everything in the physical world is made of the same "stuff" (subatomic particles of energy and information) leads me to "go with the flow" much easier and trust that I will have the outcome I desire.

I really believe that meditation is the key to all of this. It puts you in a state where you can clearly communicate with the "energy and information" that surrounds us.

I have been training my brain to know that everything good in life is easily and readily available - that it doesn't need to be hoarded or saved. That by sharing what I have I increase the flow that comes into my life (and other people's lives). And most importantly, that everything I see is a reflection of me.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

I think I shall not explain it.

I'm glad you changed your mind, because if you had chosen to not explain it after getting hyped up and saying you would, then that would have been quite lame, good sir!

Interesting ideas, by the way. This doesn't seem like anything "new" though. I believe you've discussed stuff like this in the past?

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

. I believe you've discussed stuff like this in the past?

We have.

"Way Beyond 100% Responsibility" = Illusions all the way down and relative "truth"; and

Old Dominant Thought Patterns = unconscious commitments (gunk)

The newness is in the the light that shines on it as it becomes more and more operative, understandable, and especially, I think, articulatable. When you can express and teach it to other avatars, you are (ALG is) really, expandingly, getting skillful at it!

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Well, maybe I can put it this way. It's illusions on the way down. There are illusions that are "more true", and illusions that are "more false", but it's basically illusions all the way down (until you arrive at some very fundamental awareness like "all things are interconnected" or "I don't exist").

Consider the blue feather experiment. Many people have tried it. Once in a while, someone gets a literal blue feather dropping at their feet. But most of the time, they get a blue feather on a stranger's hat; or an image of a blue feather on TV; or the picture of a blue feather on a book cover or T-shirt. Not a "real" blue feather.

Interestingly, even the author of the blue feather experiment only got a picture of a blue feather.

This is so totally me. I've wondered and wondered why I can so easily conjure up reflections of what I'm thinking about or manifesting for (syncs). Recently I was manifesting to get a big pile of cash in an envelope, "in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way." Like maybe one of my friends would win the lottery and hand me an envelope full of cash.

I manifested on this a lot for a couple days, alpha-meditated on it in during sleep-wake moments, held the envelope (standard white letter), felt and smelled the money, counted it out, and so on. Then after a couple days, one night I was flipping through tv channels and ran across Magnum PI on the retro channel, and some woman wanted Magnum to investigate something for her, and she handed him an envelope full of cash. "Hey!" I said. "That's MY envelope!"

All illusions, all the way down.

[Angela]

Funny! Early on, I visualized myself writing a check for a million dollars for a big, gorgeous home.

A few days after I started visualizing, I found myself writing a check for just over a million dollars -- related to my boss's new big, gorgeous home. He wondered why I was laughing so hard as I wrote that check.

Talk about your relative truth!

[Holistic Star]

Hi everyone,

In the course I am doing at the moment about being abundant we have been asked to look at our energetic relationship with money. A lot of us didn't like engaging with it, to the point of not even opening our bank statments.

Guess what, if you send the signals to the universe that you don't want to engage with money, the universe duely responds by not sending you any!
Andrea said the most significant example of this is winning-the-lottery-fantasies. It's an attempt to opt out of the money energy exchange. Business is about exchanging energies. Money is one of the most neutal energies available, it's what we put onto it that gives it its charge.

So what I think is interesting about ALG's unkle is that the thing that appealed to him about the business is that he didn't have to engage with it which cut him off from that energy exchange.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by Angela

The newness is in the the light that shines on it as it becomes more and more operative, understandable, and especially, I think, articulatable.

Sounds good. I was just expecting something different than the topic of old habitual thought patterns coming back and "overcoming" our new thoughts. That doesn't seem like a new realization to me.

But it helps to say the same thing in many different ways. Someone might not truly understand something the first 99 times they read about it, but the 100th time it may "sink in" and become a part of their deeper beliefs.

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

The problem with the New Thought Pattern is that it clashed with his Dominant Thought Pattern. While the New Thought Pattern successfully created certain new events in my uncle's reality, it was insufficient to overcome the Dominant Thought Pattern, which eventually asserted itself. The subsequent chain of events led to my uncle losing all the inheritance money that he had parked with X. Bringing him back to Square One again.

We hear about how typical this sort of thing is.

I first started hanging around on this forum because no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to manifest money. Well, not money of my own. I could manifest credit and loans and stuff. I could manifest amazing payment plans. Just not money of my own.

This has been a significant struggle. We've talked on the forum about how difficult it can be to subvert the Dominant Thought Pattern.

Other things, though, are so easy it's mind-boggling.

In March, my beloved cat died. I wanted a new cat and I knew that it would be the easiest thing in the world to get one. There are unwanted cats everywhere and people give them away.

One night a couple weeks after Smokey passed on, I told my friend Bob about the kind of cat I had in mind. It would be cool to get a male cat this time, because they tend to be more laid-back and more friendly, but a female would be ok. Because I'm trying to keep expenses down, I wanted the new cat to already be neutered or spayed, but preferably not declawed. Also up to date on shots. I want the new cat to look the way I like cats to look. For instance, I don't want a white cat because I've lived with white cats and they leave white fur all over the place. I really like tiger cats, but I didn't want the new cat to look just like Smokey because that would be too weird.

Two weeks later, a vet tech from the clinic called and said "I hope I'm not being insensitive, but I was wondering if you'd be interested in a cat." I said yes, I was very interested, but I hadn't pursued it because I owe the clinic a bunch of money. She said several months ago, somebody had apparently dumped a cat off at her farm, and she really liked this cat and wanted to keep it, and got him neutered and vaccinated. But the cats she already had didn't like him at all, and kept beating up on him.

So the next thing ya know, I have a new cat. He's a tiger but a different color than Smokey, he's very laid-back, very friendly, neutered and not declawed, up to date on shots, and he's actually about as perfect a cat as cats get.

It's one thing for somebody to call and ask if you want a free cat. It's another thing for somebody to call and ask if you want the sort of cat you just described in detail to your friend.

[Angela]

Daffy, I don't know -- in addition to deeper understanding and integration of what ALG has already been seeing for himself, he may very well have brand new learnings or ways of seeing things that he's getting ready to talk about -- maybe he has just been laying the groundwork!

He's fun that way!

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Angela

Funny! Early on, I visualized myself writing a check for a million dollars for a big, gorgeous home.

A few days after I started visualizing, I found myself writing a check for just over a million dollars -- related to my boss's new big, gorgeous home. He wondered why I was laughing so hard as I wrote that check.

Talk about your relative truth!

That's hilarious. And I can relate to it!

[Landi Star]

Moonrambler: Intending to receive a pile of cash in a big envelope is perhaps too specific and confining a “request” for LOA (if what you want is more money)… unless you’re just playing around w/LOA, like to see what happens (which can be fun!)...

Of course, very specific things (that one intends) do manifest sometimes, especially if approached with a light, playful attitude and your mind conceives them as “realistic” or “possible” enough to happen.

It’s best, though, to intend for money to come in all kinds of ways ("through the best & smoothest chnnels" for example) and not get hell-bent on specific means... and you may find, like I have, that amazing and surprising things happen all over the place!

It’s OK, also, to play with all kinds of specific “fantasies” (scenarios that you picture) within a larger money-goal context, but don’t get attached to them happening exactly as you picture them. Getting a wad of cash in an envelop may be one image. But when you saw this image played out on TV… I would take that as a ‘sync’ and a “sign” that there’s money-energy brewing in your life… and a confirmation of your LOA power… Don’t think the story ends there, though!
Now intend for this money-energy to manifest in your ‘real world’. You may actually get that envelop with money (if you continue to picture it) or the extra money you want may come through some other means.

Some people give up too soon when they get an “inferior” manifestation of what they’re intending, thinking that’s all they’re getting, when it would work better to take that as a “sign” and keep on going.

PS- I had a similar one to yours, Moonrambler, in which I visualized finding a bag of money… and yes, I did find a bag of money alright, but it was play money! (I wrote on this in another post).

But I’ve had a larger “big-money” goal for a while, and within this larger context I have LOA-played a lot (with specifics and situations) and have had lots of delightful successes (some beyond my best dreams) and tons of amazing syncs, signs, harbingers, near-manifestations (or “inexact manifestations”), etc, etc.
I have a very childlike, lighthearted attitude and see it all as a fun game (to give a little contrast to the DEEP (& even heavy) philosophizing which goes on in some parts of this forum, which is OK too!)

[moonrambler]

Landi Star, I know what you mean. I've been playing with all sorts of "lots of money" LoA stuff, "easy and relaxed and healthy and positive," digging through gunk, changing Dominant Thought Patterns, and so on.

It is noticeable to me that I can take 5 minutes and describe the exact sort of cat I want and *poof* it appears 2 weeks later without my doing one single thing. An envelope full of cash though, not so easy for some reason.

One week I was really bent out of shape because I hadn't earned as much money as I wanted/expected. After waking in the middle of the night, I did an alpha meditation and stormed up the hill to the place where my spirit guides, or whoever they are, seem to hang out, and pounded on the door and demanded to know what the problem was. They let me in and talked to me about a bunch of stuff. I said I wanted a sign the next day about improvements in the money situation.

The very next day, I got a priority envelope in the mail (hmmmm . . . envelope! I just realized!) from an address I didn't recognize. Wondered what the heck that was. It turned out to be a new battery for my laptop. One of my friends had ordered this battery for me, for no other reason than just to be nice. I had mentioned to him that I can't use the laptop on the deck because the battery was dead. So he goes and orders a new one for me. Pretty cool sign.

[Acting Like Godot]

A well-known piece of standard LOA advice is that you should simply focus on the desired final outcome, and not worry about the "how"; the universe will find the way for you.

Now I am not so sure that this advice is such good advice. I think it works well for some kinds of intentions, but could turn out badly for others. The key issue here is that the suggested approach focuses on creating a particular type of illusion, while ignoring the possible existence of any Dominant Thought Patterns that might operate against it.

The possible consequence is that while you may actually get what you want, it could also fall away and collapse very rapidly, because you simply haven't addressed the Dominant Thought Patterns operating against it.

Eg suppose for various reasons you have never had a satisfying love relationship. So you visualise intensely to meet a person with your ideal qualities or attributes of A, B, C, D, E. Such a person may indeed pop into your reality. But he or she won't stay very long there, if you haven't fixed the Dominant Thought Patterns which, in the first place, had created an absence of a satisfying love relationship in your life, for a long time.

Finally, the surprising thing is that if you do succeed in identifying your Dominant Thought Pattern, you might very well realise that your intention should be framed in a completely different way.

Eg let's suppose that the reason why you have never had a satisfying love relationship is that all along, you have had the Dominant Thought Pattern that you don't have time - you always feel too busy (say, with your career) to spare any time for a relationship. Suddenly, you then realise that the intention you should be working on is not "I meet a person with A, B, C, D, E qualities and we develop a relationship." Instead the optimal intention you should be working out is "I have more time for my personal life."

The successful manifestation of this intention then leads automatically to other good things in your reality, including a satisfying love relationship.

[Wax Frog]

In other words, it might be a good idea to identify and launch an intentional assault on the proverbial 800-pound gorilla? I am pretty clear on at least one or two self-defeating beliefs I've had...

[Landi Star]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

...let's suppose that the reason why you have never had a satisfying love relationship is that all along, you have had the Dominant Thought Pattern that you don't have time - you always feel too busy (say, with your career) to spare any time for a relationship. Suddenly, you then realise that the intention you should be working on is not "I meet a person with A, B, C, D, E qualities and we develop a relationship." Instead the optimal intention you should be working out is "I have more time for my personal life."

What about doing both… ie, intending for the relationship to happen as well as for making more time in your personal life.

If one wants a partner but has the belief/issue of “not enough time”… I would say to not just affirm that you have more free time in your life, but also to start concretely “un-busying” your life by simplifying your life, dropping some activities in your busy schedule, etc., all in earnest preparation for the relationship you’re expecting.

Just like one can also exchange their bedroom’s single bed for a queen bed &/or make other concrete changes to accommodate the partner. All this sends out the vibe-signals that you’re serious about having (& making time for) a partner and expecting the relationship to happen soon… and thus can help “attract” it.

[moonrambler]

I had another illusion experience, crazy. For quite awhile there, I was manifesting for "a sudden influx of at least $15,000 in cash income," (easy/relaxed/healthy/positive) . . . I was thinking it could be in that envelope in $100 bills . . . I visualized counting it out on the dining room table. I hadn't been doing this for awhile but tried it again last night. This morning when I sat down at the dining room table with my coffee, I noticed the pile of mail I'd brought in yesterday but hadn't opened any of it. There was an envelope from my ex-fiance'. I opened it and the very first thing I saw was a flyer which said at the top, "$15,000 reward." Geeesh. Good morning!