“Facts” are opinions, holding down reality until we can move beyond
“Our thoughts hold more medicine than many of the astonishing breakthroughs of our time.” — Kris Carr
In leafing through my frayed, worn-out copy of the Course this morning, I ran across this quote: “It’s a distortion to believe there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot control.”
It goes on to say that the body is nothing but a learning device for the mind and that its abilities are way overrated.
It’s always, 100 percent of the time, the mind that needs correction if the body is acting up. If anything, our bodies are a giant distraction. They’re not who we really are.
To believe my body, this temporary container is my identity is to miss the whole point.
The body is one of the ego’s greatest inventions, its most potent tools.
Fallible, aging bodies that require constant attention are the ultimate distraction. The irony, of course, is we become so distracted by caring for our bodies that we never stop to recognize that our bodies are mirrors of our beliefs. We alter them, even make them sick, with these beliefs.
Our beliefs and expectations, in fact, are so powerful that placebos (fake treatments like sugar pills, saline injections, and sham surgery) cause bald men to grow hair, high blood pressure to drop, ulcers to heal, dopamine levels to increase, and even tumors to shrink. And although pharmaceutical companies would rather keep this on the down low, placebos relieve symptoms on par with real medication.
In other words, it’s our beliefs that do the healing.
Our beliefs animate, sustain, and motivate all that we see. Blaming life for our misfortunes is like accusing our smart phones of running lousy apps. We’re the ones who downloaded them. Life simply serves as the projector of our beliefs.
Few of us truly understand the potency of our thoughts and consciousness. Each thought is a seed, a unit of mental energy that plays out in the world as powerfully as gravity or the principle of aerodynamics. Thoughts that carry sufficient intent, emotional impact, and conviction of belief (whether true or not) will take root and stimulate materialization.
So if you believe that life is an unending struggle, that bodies have no choice but to deteriorate or that most guys are jerks, that’s the script that will play out in your life.
Life itself is never painful. It is only a mirror of our beliefs. We “fix” problems by recognizing them as a case of mistaken identity and then changing the inner belief, the inner cause.
Where we get stuck is putting so much faith in a particular belief (“But it’s true that I have no money.” “It’s true that I have cancer in my genetics.”) that we cannot conceive that it’s not fact. We’re convinced it’s “God’s own gospel truth.”
Facts, despite what scientists, teachers, and CNN tell you, are opinions, holding down material reality until we can move beyond.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
