Much of what occurs to us every day is a result of automatic emotional responses known as fight or flight. New thoughts are compared with past experience in microseconds and our bodies react from emotional signals that move us towards or away from stimuli. We are programmed with internal scripts that command our actions. But where do these scripts come from? Are they just accepted reactions that we prefer or do we have the power to reprogram these responses? Much debate has ensued over whether we have control over our emotions or not.
The basic plan for a play is the script. It is a series of directions and dialogue for actors, stage hands, musicians and the lighting crew to use to coordinate the observed action onstage. Without a script there would be many miscues, or the worst, chaos. The playwright decides what action and dialogue takes place at the appropriate time. It is a coordinated effort between the implementers of the play to follow the directions of the playwright. When all actions and dialogue are executed on cue, the play’s performance is seamless. The audience gets involved in the action and doesn’t even realize that they are witnessing a play. It is automatic. Our emotional responses are so scripted that we follow their cues automatically without challenge in crisis situations. By employing scientific analysis of emotional scripts and employing conscious relaxation techniques, we can reprogram our automatic emotional responses to be more effective in actualizing our goals and desires.
In order to understand our emotional responses, we must dig down deep into the core of the basic emotions. Many theorists have identified what they deem as basic emotions. These basic (primary) emotions are combined, or layered to produce secondary emotions. In order to identify the root emotion, we must peel off the layers through the process of conscious relaxation. What is conscious relaxation? It is a state where we are completely conscious of our breath and bodily functions while releasing our conscious control of our thoughts; or what is commonly referred to as meditation. It is a state where we do not generate commands, but listen to the echoes in our minds and bodies. It is the time where we make ourselves a priority in order to relax our system enough to release any built up stress that is caused by our thoughts and emotional reactions to these thoughts. Recognizing and observing facts concerning our lives can only be accurate in a less stressful state. Stress masks our ability to discern between fact and opinion.
After meditation our minds are clearer. It is the time when we can reflect on our behaviors and jot them down. Making a list throughout the day of our emotional reactions is the beginning of changing the automatic script of our behaviors. List all of the emotions and emotional reactions that you experience during the course of your day. Don’t analyze them; just list them. Analysis will take place later. Build this list over the course of weeks and months until you have a good sample of your behaviors. Make sure that you take note to similar behaviors in different situations. This data will help you get a clearer picture of your root emotions. Why is this important? Because an understanding of what motivates you will help you get a clearer picture of your deepest desires. What YOU feel you were created to accomplish in life.
A good scientific analysis of your listed behaviors requires that you identify key questions to be answered by your data. If you are going to solve the problem of reprogramming your emotional reactions, the questions you ask yourself must yield the correct answers from the data you have collected. Be thorough in your observations and leave no stone unturned. Your ego is quite clever in protecting your sore spots. Don’t let it fool you into believing that certain observations of your behaviors are not relevant. Every reaction you display is relevant. It will help you pinpoint what emotions trigger these reactions.
Research what others have done in identifying their emotional reactions. See what methods they have employed to identify and isolate deep seated emotions. Ask yourself what is it you really need to know about yourself. Make sure that you use reliable sources that employ scientific methods that observe the facts and don’t espouse opinions. Determine the sources of the data that others have used in obtaining their conclusions. Ask how the data was obtained, was the experiment conducted scientifically and it has been duplicated by others with the same results. Ask yourself if you would have obtained the same conclusions if you had conducted the experiment. In order for you to feel comfortable or even confident with others’ data and conclusions you must believe it to be accurate. If there are any trepidations concerning their accuracy, then discard them immediately. It will not serve your ultimate purpose of obtaining accurate conclusions about your behaviors.
Correct scientific analysis requires that we identify the questions that reveal the answers we are seeking, as well as pinpointing the problems we are seeking to solve. Gathering and organizing information about our behaviors requires effective research and focused evaluation of the data that we gather. By utilizing methods that replicate the way our brains function, we can map out the processes that take place in our minds. Illustrating and interpreting these processes through mapping, tabling and modeling can reveal the source emotions that trigger our emotional reactions. The next article will discuss these various techniques for the reader to use in determining their emotional scripts. By rewriting your life script you can change the daily outcome of your life to proceed toward the actualization of your individual potential. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
Elizabeth and I would like to invite you all to our site ‘Service In Prayer’. For many months we have been led to offer a way for our online friends to have a forum to share our prayer needs with each other.
The purpose of this website is to connect with one another and share our needs for healing in whatever areas we feel we need. Please visit the website or go to the Facebook forum to post any public prayers on the Wall or PM us for private prayers.
We will pray for you or help you to find Prayer Partners to assist you in healing and realization of your Divine purpose and the unfolding of it in Divine order.
Thank you all for your support, kindness and for blessing us with your ongoing friendship. Peace and blessings to all of you and your families! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
OUR PAST ISSUES
Did you miss any of the issues of The Spirituality Post Daily? If so, following are the links to each and every day for you to peruse. Please visit our advertisers and help us to keep going in our service to the spiritual community of souls who long for a greater spiritual perspective on life. God bless you and your families! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
What is the Spirituality Guidance Channel? SGC is a video portal designed to introduce spiritually inclined individuals to be exposed to spiritual videos, radio, teachers, music, art, books, resources and links from a selected group of teachers and requests from viewers. Each featured coach/teacher will have their own page highlighting any videos, audios, websites or printed material they have produced. This portal will be regularly promoted on the Internet through social networking and targeted marketing channels. Please visit the website at the following address:
Please visit our websites and send them to anyone you think would need our services. If you are out of our area (Northern Delaware) and know someone in our area, please forward this flyer onto them. We are available for work over the next few months, so please let us know as soon as possible. ~Liz & Dean
What is Separation Anxiety? In regard to children it is the normal fear and apprehension expressed by infants when removed from their mothers or approached by strangers. In older children it is an apprehension or fear associated with his or her separation from a parent or other significant person. In adults it is any similar reaction in later life caused by separation from familiar surroundings or close friends or family. The adult reaction is a behavior duplicated later in life by usually sudden and involuntary exposure to novel and potentially threatening situations (dictionary.com). Normal fears are fears that we, as humans, express in reaction to situations, events, occurrences or people in our environments. An infant is naturally attached to its mother primarily due to its 9 month gestation period inside of the mother. The chemical reactions within the infant’s brain come directly from the mother’s physical chemistry. The subsequent smells, interactions and resultant comfort levels further endear the infant to the mother. When the infant is removed from the mother or someone else approaches them, their instinctual reaction is to cling to what is comfortable and secure. When the infant is removed from its comfort zone and/or security zone, it reacts with feelings that cause anxiety. Hence the act of separation from the known to the unknown causes anxiety.
These anxieties remain buried within most individuals. For example, when young adults leave for college and are removed from the family surroundings they either react to this change with separation anxiety or they pro-act with certainty. Anxiety is a state of uneasiness and apprehension about future uncertainties that causes mental tension (dictionary.com). Fear of the unknown is a secondary fear that warns us about what could possibly happen (negatively) to us. It is the Uncertainty Principle. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in Quantum Mechanics states that increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another conjugate quantity may be known. In other words, the more fear you embrace, the more uncertain about your future you become. This author proposes a new Certainty Principle that states, conversely, that the more faith you embrace the more CERTAIN about your future you become. Certainty requires faith in your abilities to overcome any obstacle. Faith is the result of an internal acceptance of principles and observation of positive outcomes. It is knowing something is going to happen without any physical proof that it will happen. It is the resultant action of a contrived state that propels us into the achievement of growth and expansion.
Separation can only occur in a dualistic perceived reality. Our senses relay only partial information about our environment and our brains create copies of these perceptions that we believe to be real. Polarization is the dynamic by which we measure a dualistic environment. Things are either black or white or varying degrees in between; shades of grey. Our brains are like prisms that absorb the white light and convert it into colors. White light is the presence of all perceivable colors and black is the absence of white light. This dualism is the canvas upon which our senses perceive reality. Our brains in turn create copies of these perceptions that we evaluate and subsequently judge as to how they affect us. We either react to them or pro-act from them. In reality, there is no separation. We are inextricably tied to our environments. We emanate from spirit and manifest in our environments. We could not exist without our connection to our environment. Dr. Wayne Dyer said it best when he said we are enviro-beings. We come forth from the earth just as a plum comes from a plum seed. We are never separated from spirit (plumness); we expand into our physical reality from spirit and we express that spirit in varying levels every day. Dr. Walter Russell explained it further by stating that when we die we refold into spirit. Spirit is always within us and is our source. God stated to Moses when he saw the burning bush, “I am that, I am.” God is the spirit from which all life expands and grows. He is the breath that was breathed into the clay called Adam.
There have been many explanations of whom and what God is but the best is that He is the stillness from which all action springs. In the electromagnetic spectrum there are 144 octaves of frequency. When the vibrations of energy reach the 144th octave, they are virtually still. When you look at an incandescent light bulb the light that emanates appears to be still. In reality it is vibrating at 60 times a second. Our eyes can see down to 1/12 of a second so we see 5 blinks for every time slice that our brains can perceive. It appears to us to be steady. Our thoughts are vibrations that respond to our internal chemistry. Every thought in our brains is a result of chemical interactions. Everything that exists vibrates. Matter is energy that is vibrating at a slower rate. Einstein’ theory of relativity showed the relationship in his famous formula E=mc2. The formula states that energy is equal to the mass of an object times the velocity of light (186,310 mps) squared. As you can see; everything is connected and dependent on each other.
In reality, nothing can be separated. When we have a thought about what we want in this apparent dualistic universe, we also have the thought about what we don’t want. Both extremes occur simultaneously. This contrast is what gives us focus and clarity in what we think we want or don’t want. It helps channel our emotions to convert our desires into expectations. Why? Simply, for our universe to expand. A delicate balance between liberal movement and conservative positioning is needed to move progressively forward. The political stage is nothing more than the daily battle between these contrasting philosophies that gradually bring us forward into the future; the dance of expansion. Both sides need each other; even though they might not recognize it. This is a universe (or multiverse) of balance an order. As Carl Sagan once said; we are star stuff. The atoms and molecules within our bodies have been around for millennia. They cannot be created or destroyed. They simply change form from energy to matter and from matter to energy.
We are never separated from anything. When we accept our union with all life we will begin to receive ideas and desires of what we were created to do and accomplish. Become one with life, your desires and work diligently towards your goals. Separation is an illusion of the dualistic perceived reality. Recognize, realize and accept our union with all that exists in the universe and attract what you want in your life. Choose pro-activity and certainty. This comes with a deeper understanding of how we are connected with all that exists. There is no separation and therefore no reason to feel anxiety over growth and expansion. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
WHAT IS
SPIRITUALITY GUIDANCE?
“Spirituality Guidance is the art of leading individuals to observe, collate and evaluate the facts. It frees the individual from judgment and allows your spirit to truly be free. By utilizing facts and not opinions, an individual can become one with the desires of their heart. The ultimate goal is to actualize these desires through prayer, meditation and service.” – Dean A. Banks, D.D.
Spirituality Guidance is a term that defines the art of awakening individuals to the truth of their value. Each and every one of us has worth and value within us. Whether it has been tapped or not, it is there waiting to be expressed. Why? Because this universe (or multiverse) is a living entity that constantly creates and re-creates itself. This is similar to our daily journey through life. Each day we tackle our various duties and responsibilities, interact with other individuals and manifest our destiny based upon our awareness of that destiny. We engage in periods of activity and rest that express our attitudes about life.
The greatest tool in observing the facts necessary to guide yourself and others to a deeper understanding of the world in which we live is by the process of scientific discovery. Scientific discovery involves the processes of observing, predicting, hypothesizing, inferring, identifying, recognizing, reasoning and further analyzing. Through the methodical employment of these processes we can dig down to the core of the facts that we observe. This method is referred to as the hypothetico-deductive method of observing reality. Its guiding principle is found in the Law of Parsimony, a.k.a. Occam’s Razor.
The Law of Parsimony states that in considering all aspects of an observation, reducing the occurrence of what is being observed to the simplest explanation or strategy is the best explanation. If an apple falls from the tree without any visible external forces, then it must be something that we cannot observe that is causing the object to move. It is not a non-corporeal entity cutting the apple from the tree, but a force that we experience and that we can only observe the results of that force. That force is gravity. In other words, don’t make assumptions as to the causes. Seek out the facts by reducing the conclusions of what you observe to the simplest explanation.
In reality, how many people really do that? How many times does something have to occur before you accept it as true? Once, twice, three times? Only by developing a strategy and subsequent processes of revealing the truth does one come to a deeper understanding of why things occur the way that they do. Did you get what you wanted or did you get what you needed? Did you obtain the job that you thought was best for you or did you feel you settled for something less than what you deserved? Your attitudes and feelings affect the outcome of the results that are manifested in your life. In order to conduct a scientific experiment to observe the results that you have obtained in your life and understand why those results have been manifested, you must remove your opinions, emotions and attitudes and reduce your observations to the simplest explanation.
For example, it’s like a person who joined a gym in order to exercise and get fit. They began paying a set fee per month to maintain their membership. However, they never disciplined themselves to get out of bed every morning and show up at the gym to exercise. As their weight began to increase, they began to become more angry. Not being able to see that their behavior was the cause of their weight gain, they pushed the blame for their condition onto the gym. Was it the gym’s fault? Hardly. It was their lack of discipline that caused the situation. They could not step out of their own head to view and embrace the simplest explanation. The truth is that if they had disciplined themselves to show up every day and exercise they would begin to see the overall change in their weight and subsequently, their attitude. Attitudes are a result of observed behavior. If you want a healthy attitude, you need to observe the facts and not employ the untested opinions of yourself and others.
The purpose of Spirituality Guidance is to guide others to seek out the facts by scientifically observing them and reducing their causes to the simplest explanation. By accepting the simplest explanation, we can begin to unfold our innermost desires and develop strategies to accomplish those desires. Truth is revealed through accurate and effective observation of the facts. Values are created by a set of rules that we establish based on physical conditions, emotional reactions, mental pro-actions and spiritual awareness. Our worth is based on how much we accept the truth, act on our values and develop strategies that contribute to growth and expansion of life instead of living mediocrity. The processes of asking through prayer, seeking through meditation and opening the door through service, will actualize our desires and lead our lives into complete fulfillment.
DOES LIKE ATTRACT LIKE?
How do we know ‘like’ attracts ‘like’? Is it just a theory, or can we prove that the Law of Attraction works on the physical reality? Actually, experiments were conducted on the International Space Station by Astronaut Don Pettit of NASA that demonstrated that matter in a weightless environment congeals together. He observed sugar, salt and coffee clumping up in the zero gravity of space. Particles of cosmic dust clump together by colliding and sticking to one another just like the experiment conducted by the astronaut. This is a theory of planetary formation that looks highly probable.
Like particles in space move toward each other and clump into greater objects that increase in gravity and grow larger and larger. Much is the same for our ‘mental’ and ‘emotional’ constructs that we envision into reality. By generating convicted thoughts fueled by emotional desires through expected envisioning we begin to ‘clump’ together ‘like’ particles with ‘like’ particles to construct a masterpiece.
When we ‘see’ the end result we are creating a picture of ‘likeness’ that draws the elements necessary for its construction to ‘clump’ together and complete our picture. The only time this picture or ‘image’ becomes real is when we simply ‘allow’ it to happen! We must allow the omniversal processes to do their ‘thing’ without micromanaging ‘how’ they do it. In other words, see the image of the end result, expect it to unfold naturally and get out of its way by not ‘worrying’ about ‘how’ it will happen.
Not precisely following this process in any way will negate the desired results from being created. Why? Because it is not based on Divine trust! Trusting completely in the Divine requires faith in the natural process of creation. Creation has already occurred and continues ad infinitum. Living who and what you are is actually re-creating what already exists into new paradigms and patterns of expression. Co-creating is the process of re-creating and re-ordering what already exists.
Your dreams and desires already exist. For you to experience them completely you must ‘shift’ your consciousness to project what you desire and feel worthy enough to experience its reflection in your life. If you don’t, you will always be dreaming of the life you want without ever experiencing it. It is up to you to focus on what you ‘like’ in order to experience what you ‘like’.
It’s actually that simple. What is difficult is discharging your beliefs that contradict this because these beliefs ensure your comfort. Break out of your comfort zone in order to live your dreams. Otherwise, they will never ‘clump’ together! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
Currently Bobby Hinkle, Elizabeth
May Sutor and Dean A. Banks, D.D. have uploaded podcasts. Robert Yarbrough will be added soon. Just click on the podcasters placards below and click on the Podcast title. Currently there are five podcasts on Bobby Hinkle's page, one on Elizabeth Sutor's page and nine on Dean A. Banks, D.D.'s page. Stay tuned for more! Thank you for choosing us!
What is the Spirituality Guidance Channel? SGC is a video portal designed to introduce spiritually inclined individuals to be exposed to spiritual videos, radio, teachers, music, art, books, resources and links from a selected group of teachers and requests from viewers. Each featured coach/teacher will have their own page highlighting any videos, audios, websites or printed material they have produced. This portal will be regularly promoted on the Internet through social networking and targeted marketing channels. Please visit the website at the following address:
http://www.spiritualityguidance.com and email me at webproducer@hotmail.com with any suggestions, links or materials. Thank you for your most courteous participation in this project. I welcome your input. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
Welcome to our new Sunday Morning Service by Dr. Dean A. Banks, D.D.
Every week Dr. Dean will be engaging subjects that are pertinent to your growth and expansion into recognition of; respect to; and communication with your inner spirit.
Please feel free to comment or suggest topics for review. May the Divine always bless you and your families! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
Yesterday, in the article Aspects of Humanity, we explored the four main aspects of human behavior. Today we will examine the physical chemistry aspect of our beings. As humans we are an aggregate of cells that function together as one coherent unit. Each cell requires ingestion of life sustaining foods and oxygen. It also requires excretion of the waste that is not used by the cells. Without this input/output system functioning correctly our bodies have to adjust to the malfunctions that take place as a result of improper maintenance.
Our bodies require several necessary ingredients in order to survive. We require an ongoing supply of air, water for the necessary fluids in our bodies, nutritional foods that supply the needs for cellular growth and exercise for cellular maintenance. Without these necessary ingredients our bodies begin to break down on a path to eventual death.
An ongoing supply of air provides the necessary oxygen that our cells require. Our respiratory system is the pump that feeds the oxygen to the cells. Smoking or breathing exposure to toxic gases replaces the necessary oxygen with chemicals that affect the cells in a derogatory manner. The brain is expecting oxygen and it gets shocked when it has to process something other than it requires. Tobacco or drug smoking causes an initial oxygen deprivation high and then replaces the gas with the chemical substance that creates a euphoric or semi-disorienting effect. Repeated oxygen substitution leads to eventual cellular breakdown. Our most immediate and important need is to breathe. Without it we would die within minutes.
Water is necessary in our bodies for the creation of the fluids that are required to transport food to the cells and remove waste from the cells. Over the past few years the emphasis on the ingestion of water has come to the forefront of those seeking maximum health. We have been told by many experts to ingest at least 8 glasses of water every day. How many people do you know actually do that? Not many people that I have seen drink that much water. Most people get their water from their morning coffee, sugar ridden juice drinks and soda. All of these are not pure sources of water. Our bodies manufacture the carbohydrate sugar fuel glucose in order to burn energy. Water and glucose are the battery of our cellular systems. The most natural way to get both of these items is to regularly ingest fruits and vegetables. The water and fructose in fruits and vegetables supply our bodies with the necessary raw ingredients to charge our batteries. No matter what type of sugar we ingest, the body converts it to glucose. However, the side effects of regular ingestion of concentrated sugars lead to diabetes and hypoglycemia. The pancreas produces insulin, which enables cells to absorb glucose and convert it into energy. We either cannot produce enough insulin or we produce too much.
Our cells require both organic and inorganic foods. Organic foods provide protein, carbohydrates and fats. Inorganic foods are the necessary cell salts (minerals) that trigger the electrical cell batteries to burn energy. Cells do not naturally produce their own minerals and grow by a process of cellular division. They burn energy in the process. As a result of their burning energy, waste products are produced. These waste products remain within the body of the cells until they can be removed. The process of waste removal comes under the heading of cellular maintenance.
Our circulatory systems are focused around the heart as its pump. But what about the removal of waste from the cells? Do we leave garbage around our houses or do we put it in the trash can and have the garbage man pick it up once or twice a week? Our lymphatic system is in charge of removing the waste from our cells but does not have a pump like the circulatory system. It requires regular and consistent exercise to move the cellular waste through the lymphatic fluid to discharge it from the body. Sedentary lifestyles are like leaving the garbage outside of your house without a consistent pickup. Eventually it will reek to high heaven and the stink will make you sick.
Proper maintenance of our physical chemistry requires an adequate supply of oxygen, proper and sufficient ingestion of water and healthy foods and regular and sufficient exercise to remove waste from our bodies. Without a consistent and ongoing plan to grow and maintain our physical health our bodies will begin to deteriorate and this deterioration will affect the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of our beings. Each aspect affects the others. We are psycho-physical units that operate on a balance of all of our individual aspects.
Breathing efficiently, eating and drinking correctly and exercising regularly are the keys to a balanced physical chemistry. Our bodies are worth it because they are our life vehicles. Would you put water in the gas tank of your car? I doubt it. Respect your life vehicle like you respect your car. It will provide many long years of insight, health and movement. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
SPIRITUAL BOOKS
CONSULTATION
THE ASPECT OF
EMOTIONAL REACTION
Today we will proceed to the next aspect of humanity: emotional reactions. The definition of emotion is an affective state of consciousness where feelings of either moving towards or moving away from something are experienced. It is a reaction to an external event, occurrence or internal experience. A reaction is an action in response to some influence either externally or internally generated that appears on the stage of one’s mind. For example: you see a cold glass of water, feel thirsty and drink the water, or you feel thirsty, see the water and drink it to quench your thirst. Our emotions are the action motivators of stimulus-response. Emotional states of consciousness are different from cognitive and volitional states. They are reactive states to what we perceive as true and what we choose to do as a result of our awareness of an external or internal experience.
Cognitive states of consciousness are perception, memory retention, concentration, contemplation, evaluation and reasoning. In other words, observing an occurrence, comparing it to past experience, evaluating its relevance to one’s safety and comfort and deciding whether to move toward it or away from it. They are pro-active states where one anticipates an expected outcome and decides to take the steps necessary to intervene or control the situation to minimize a possible negative conclusion. Volitional states of consciousness occur when one judges another’s actions and chooses to take a survival based action to methodically move toward self-preservation. They involve sheer will power where the ego dominates the stage generally for self-protection. Emotional states are instantaneous reactions to situations manifesting as either fight or flight.
As your nervous system transmits electrical signals through a chemical sodium-potassium pump, your brain receives these signals and interprets where the signals will be routed to in your brain. The first stop is at the base of your brain. It is what is referred to as the reptiliancomplex. This part of our brain is responsible for survival and kicks into dominance when our supplies of air, water, food, sex, and individual security are threatened. It is our reactive brain. The next stop in our brain is our limbicsystem where our sympathetic (peripheral) nervous system, central nervous system and endocrine systems carry out the processes of fight or flight. It’s the volitional brain. Finally, when signals reach the neocortex, they translate electrical signals into sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought and language; our pro-active brain. Emotional reactions are the result of programmed stimulus-response behavior either experienced or inherited. Ever wonder why you run from a spider or a bee? Either you have been stung or bitten and remembered the unpleasant experience or you have inherited a chemical program from your forbears that causes the reaction.
When these signals enter your higher brain functions you have the choice to reprogram them or allow them to control your actions. If your higher brain functions are underdeveloped you will more than likely be a person who plods through life emotionally reacting to every occurrence in your life and every feeling that pops up in your mind. When one makes a decision to NOT react, but pro-act, a new neural program needs to be consistently repeated in order to forge a new neural pattern of behavior. The word decision in Latin means to cut off. This means that a decision to reprogram cuts off any other patterns of behavior and utilizes the new pattern of behavior consistently and repeatedly until the new neural pattern is embedded in the brain.
Our emotional aspect of humanity is very important to our survival, growth and expansion. It’s what keeps us alive while we actualize and become the desires that we possess within our neural programming. The word desire means of the father. Whether you believe in God or not, there are desires present within your being that you long for or strive to attain. Why are they there? Is it previous emotional programming from ancestral chemistry or is it a choice that you have made based on your experience? Do the answers to these questions really matter? Or should you just succumb to your innermost desires to be, do or have what you ultimately want? This is where our higher brain functions kick in and guide us to make informed decisions based on facts, not suppositions and opinions.
Emotions are our protection mechanism. They guide us to make decisions based on previous experiences and feelings. When we learn how to use them efficiently, we can transcend from being reactive to pro-active. Tempering your emotions with higher brain functions of logic and reasoning are a beginning to achieving balance and order in your life. The pathway to self-actualization cannot be traversed until you manage your emotions and cultivate your higher brain functions. There are many teachers, courses and life plans available to help you to manage your transition from a reactive state of mind to a pro-active one. May your journey to self-actualization.be filled with joy and accomplishment. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
THE ASPECT OF
MENTAL PRO-ACTION
In the previous article was an explanation of emotional reactions. They are automatic actions based on our inbred stimulus-response mechanism. Today we will investigate the mental processes associated with neocortex of the brain; the higher thought mechanisms. Emotional states of consciousness produce fight or flight responses. The remaining two states of consciousness are volition and cognition.
The willpower necessary to carry out non-reactive survival responses is the process known as volition. Volition revolves around judgment. Judgment is the process whereby we examine our evaluations and make stances or take actions in regard to protecting ourselves and our beliefs. Judgment is not a higher brain function because it takes evaluations from higher brain functions and makes them personal. When you step out of the realm of your personal survival mechanism (the ego) you take others into account. You measure actions or inactions against the ruler of how this benefits all of those involved in a particular situation. This is why Jesus made the statement, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” When you start to look out for the other guy as well as yourself, you actualize your higher brain functions and begin to seek a collective understanding of yourself in relation to your environment. Willpower is a necessary tool to insure your safety and longevity, but it is not conducive to thoughts of growth and expansion.
Cognition involves states of consciousness where higher brain functions occur. In this realm perception of your environment and recognition or retention in memory is the initial step in interaction. Other states occur but are secondary responses to environmental interaction. Concentration is a state where you hold onto a thought and examine it. Contemplation is a state where you move a held thought around and examine it in different variations and situations. Evaluation is where you take your perceptions and examine the facts that you have sensed. Reasoning is a state where you employ deductive or inductive logic to examine the facts. Most people never even enter the stage of reasoning because they haven’t developed that part of their brain. Critical thinking requires not only observation but education as well. Logic allows us to reason out whether the fight or flight response is justified or not. Pro-action requires vision, not just the sense of sight but the ability to predict outcomes based on the facts. It understands the possibilities and through faith converts them into probabilities.
Higher brain functions allow us to think our way through to conclusions. They generate motor commands that move muscles and bones and allow our bodies to travel through life. They coordinate multiple signals that balance our bodies and allow us to think and speak. The one distinctive characteristic of higher brain functions is pro-activity. It’s initiated movement not reactive movement. Our brains are massive switching networks that coordinate multiple signals and allow us to live and become better than we are every day.
Do you choose to embrace thoughts of lack and limitation and speak negativity into your life? Or do you choose to embrace thoughts of abundance and speak positive support to yourself and others? These thoughts and actions are the everyday choices that we all make. Our thoughts and speech are powerful mechanisms that control how our bodies work and how we manifest our desires. Just because a negative thought pops up in your head doesn’t mean you have to believe it or act upon it. Every thought in your mind is chemically based and we all have the choice to change those thoughts into thoughts that are productive and create growth and expansion. You are the master of your thoughts and your thoughts are NOT the master of you. If you think similar thoughts day after day you begin to forge beliefs. These beliefs will steer your life into either a positive or negative direction. Would a truly intelligent person choose a path of self-destruction or would they choose to grow and expand?
In order to actualize and utilize higher brain functions effectively, you must first balance your physical health. Next, you must master and control your emotional reactions and then develop your higher brain functions to pro-act the results you seek. Development of higher brain functions is a process of manifesting results and relaxing your mind. Just as your body needs physical sleep to rest and rebuild, your mind needs conscious relaxation to rest and allow an understanding of peace to fill your mind. Conscious interaction day after day without conscious relaxation can lead to mental overload. Meditation is a process by which you can attain conscious relaxation. Practicing it daily helps your mind sort things out in this stressful world. Internal reaction to many unwanted circumstances causes stress in your nervous system. Meditation helps to release that stress so you can function more effectively. Seek out a plan, teacher or course to learn how to meditate and it will relieve you of stress so you can develop your higher brain functions. Seek out a course, class or book on logic and learn how to think. Then, and only then, will you be able to master your higher brain functions in such a way that you will attain the desires of your heart! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
WHY DOESN'T THE SECRET
WORK FOR ME?
This question is probably one of the most asked questions concerning The Secret, or the Law of Attraction. When people discover The Secret, either from the movie, the book or many other teachers, they get excited about the fact that they can create their own reality. A saying comes to mind for me; “A little knowledge is dangerous.” Knowing that one’s imagination can create their reality is a great first step. However, there are other things that one must know in order to truly manifest what they desire.
When you take the time to study how the universe works you will learn that things aren’t always what they appear to be. Galaxies were once thought to be collections of gas and stellar matter that congealed together by mutual gravitational forces. It is now known by science that super-massive black holes are at the center of most galaxies and that their gravitational fields are what hold the galaxies together. Science couldn’t see the black holes; they could see the effect of their presence in what they could see. The same could be said for the Law of Attraction. Like the black hole, it cannot be seen directly, but can be seen by the results it manifests.
In the divine scheme of things in this universe (multiverse), one aspect of free will is the ability to choose what thoughts we hold on to. If we hold onto similar thoughts over the course of time and accept them as true, then they become our beliefs. Our beliefs filter the energies of the universe into creating our reality. If we believe that the LOA is hogwash, then through the LOA, we will experience circumstances that will support those beliefs. If we believe in the LOA, then we will experience circumstances that reveal its actuality. But that’s not necessarily the whole picture.
The LOA works whether you believe it or not. Your beliefs (your repeated and accepted thoughts) will filter your desires to create the manifestations of the LOA. For example, if you desire to be a great painter, and you believe that you could never do it, you won’t. No matter how much you intend to become a great painter and repeatedly try to do so, you will not realize the manifestation of your desire until you believe you can do it. You, in effect, need to expect that your desire is within your grasp or you will not manifest your desires. Your subconscious belief system is the dam through which the river of your desires must flow. If the floodgates are closed due to your beliefs and emotional reinforcement of your beliefs, then no matter how much you desire something, it will not manifest in your life. It is up to you to change your belief system by removing any erroneous beliefs. This will open the floodgates for the LOA to work smoothly and efficiently.
But how do you do this? Each and every day of your life up until now you have programmed your brain with repeated thoughts and accepted beliefs. In effect, these beliefs have come about because YOU chose them. Some beliefs are true and some are false. You want to hold onto what is true and discard what is false. Can you simply undo false beliefs to attain total freedom? Hardly. The only way these beliefs can be nullified is by you gaining control over your ego. But how do gain control over your ego? By recognizing that the concerns of others are just as important as your concerns. It requires stepping outside of yourself in order to see the greater picture. It is an acceptance of the divine and the allowance of his presence to be active within you. Since God is our source, then why wouldn’t you accept all of the blessings the divine has for all of us? Most people won’t accept guidance from the divine because they either don’t believe in our source, their ego is too dominant or they just don’t know. Most people are too distracted by our universe of a perceived dualistic reality to make the time to still themselves and listen to God. They are always looking to the outside for answers when the answers are within. Dr. Wayne Dyer once said that the door swings inward. Yet so many of us think it swings outward.
In Dr. Joe Vitale’s (one of the stars in The Secret) The Missing Secret, he reveals a simple way to mend the beliefs that are holding you back from actualizing your desires (from Ho’oponopono; an ancient Hawaiian healing method). His simple, yet effective formula states that you must examine your beliefs one by one and make the following statements to the divine:
I love you; I am sorry; please forgive me; thank you.
By loving the divine you are accepting why you were created. By telling the divine you are sorry for this erroneous belief you are releasing its hold on you. By asking for forgiveness, you are accepting responsibility for holding this belief as true when it was false. By saying thank you, you are freeing yourself from any guilt that your ego might attach to the belief. This process is very effective and can help free you from the hold your erroneous beliefs have on you. In essence, by holding fast to your erroneous beliefs you have become your own worst enemy. Why not be your own best friend instead?
Make the time each day to open the door inward and listen to the still small voice of God guiding and directing you to the manifestation of the desires that were planted in your heart. Meditate and escape the distraction that our outer world of a perceived dualistic reality offers. Seek inner peace, not external warfare. There are no battles to win, just peace to attain. The Secret will only work for those who go within and know how the universe works. If you seek to explain it away in the outside world you will always find an argument that works. Why? Because that’s the goal that you seek. You are in command. Your life is a reflection of the thoughts, beliefs and actions that you have taken. Choose to manifest your deepest desires by cleaning up your stinkin’ thinkin’ and removing the erroneous beliefs that are holding you back. It is YOUR choice.
WELCOME TO TSP DAILY!
We are so pleased with the success of The Spirituality Post Weekly Online Magazine, The Spirituality Post Daily and The Spirituality Guidance Sunday Morning Service that we have now combined them into a daily online magazine for those involved in Spirituality. Every weekday and weekend we will be featuring the writings and sayings of Dr. Dean A. Banks, D.D. Please come and visit us every day to receive inspiration, guidance and opinion on spiritual and political matters. We would like to thank you all for your support and dedication to the writings and sayings that we feature. May God bless all of you and your families now and evermore! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
In this article we will examine the most controversial and least scientifically provable aspect of humanity. Many books have been written about the beliefs and revelations of spiritual leaders. Radio, TV and the Internet are daily bombarded with opinions of whom and what God is, what interpretation of the Bible is the most correct and whether a spiritual leader is God or not. Most of their attention seems to be focused on what is outside of them; not what is present within. A good starting point for all of us is to realize that our perceptions of everything are copies of reality; not reality. Our internal evaluations and subsequent judgments define our belief systems. It is when we decide to believe something based on how it affects us alone that causes friction in many religions.
Religion comes from the Latin religio, which means a binding together of people with similar beliefs. It is common for human beings to reinforce their belief system by seeking out others who believe the same thing. It supports their convictions and allows them to feel comfortable and self-righteous about their conclusions. Once these convictions are cemented into one’s consciousness, a pattern of behavior emerges that reinforces a person’s convictions and beliefs. However, this can be dangerous. Living inflexible convictions can lead to the development of attitudes, derision and dogma. Just because you have come to a conclusion about God, the universe or just life in general, doesn’t mean it is correct and that everyone else should believe it. Basing your beliefs on others’ opinions, rumor or some book, is not very stable at best. Beliefs need to be tested and understood by those who believe them. Not just blindly accept what someone else says.
Spirituality is the awareness of an individual to a source of life beyond what can be sensed. It is the ability to understand that reality is different from the copy we perceive in our brains. It delves into the fractal nature of life and views the oneness of all existence. Spirituality embraces the belief that we are all connected and come from the same source. What is awareness? It is the ability to mentally accept what you observe as fact and come to an understanding as to how it happened, how it affects you and others and what do you need to do about it. Basically, it brings information to a state of knowledge by understanding the purpose, process and results of the information. When situations repeatedly occur and you use your knowledge to pro-act instead of react, you begin to convert knowledge into wisdom. Wisdom is the state where knowledge of situations, occurrences, events and actions in general are understood by the perceiver in relation to the bigger picture of their lives. Being spiritual reveals the wisdom you have attained by observing, pro-acting and living life with an understanding of the bigger picture.
Many religious leaders dispute scientific findings because, in their minds, it doesn’t fit into their creation theory of the universe. In fact, science allows a process of observation, evaluation, experimentation and conclusion that reveals the accuracy of the copies we perceive. It is a fine tuning of our mental processes to extract the most accurate information so we can make informed conclusions. Yet, many preachers and their followers dispute this information because of their belief that it is in contradiction to their belief in God. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you make the time to observe nature and life and obtain its values, then you come to a universal conclusion that everything we observe is a result of processes in constant motion. Whether you believe that God caused this motion or that the universe (or multiverse) is just one big clock, is not really important. What is important is that you understand your relationship with God, the universe or both. Spirituality is an awareness of this relationship and a consciousness that the creative power of God and/or the universe is within you.
But what exactly is creative power? It is the ability to take existing raw materials and convert them into a cohesive whole. Everything that exists is composed of smaller particles that are universal in nature. Matter is nothing more than cohesive collections of these smaller particles vibrating at a slower rate than light. It is energy at its most dense form. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It exists in the forms of matter, plasma or light. Creative power manipulates energies that ultimately alter other forms of energy. Not directly, but by a process of relaying. Relaying is the process of using your mental focus to manipulate greater energies to manifest desires; just like an electrical device known as a relay. By accepting something as true and then acting upon what it takes to make it true, we set the wheel of energy into motion. Consistent daily practice of moving this wheel of energy ultimately results in the manifestation of your desires. This practice involves consciously relaxing through meditation, seeing the end result of your desires through visualization and acting as if it has already happened to experience the joy of accomplishment.
Living a life with an awareness of spirituality means you are a co-creator with God and/or the universe. It means that you know, have access to, and utilize this creative power on a daily basis to create the life that you want. It doesn’t involve converting people to believe what you believe. It involves focusing on what you were created to be; a co-creator in this magnificent creation of the universe! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
THE DISTRACTION FACTION
Many times throughout our lives we face events, circumstances and people that veer us off of our focus. But what exactly is our focus, or more importantly, what should it be? Henry David Thoreau once said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Most people have their goals and dreams and long for their actualization. Whether these dreams and goals are material or spiritual isn’t necessarily the deciding factor in the manifestation of them. The dam that blocks or allows the manifestation of your desires is the acceptance of your beliefs as reality. How many times does something have to happen to you before you believe it and accept it as true? Once, twice, three times? Or do you have a deeper understanding of how the universe works and know that every event, occurrence and person in your life is a result of your beliefs?
Each and every day of your life your beliefs lead you down a path of discovery. If you believe that you aren’t good enough for a job you are interested in, then you will be increasingly aware of events, circumstances and people that will reinforce that belief. In reality, you are being distracted from the real truth. And what is the real truth? The fact that every fiber of your being vibrates with an energy that is unique to you. This energy is a signature of your innermost desires. Beliefs based on factual truth and not erroneous opinions will create an alignment with you and your innermost desires.
When you accept beliefs that reinforce negative viewpoints, the Law of Attraction begins to create those results that you accept as true. If you get up every day, affirm your success, go about your day taking the steps to attain that success and believe that you aren’t worthy of attaining your goals and dreams, then they won’t manifest. When you come from a mindset of negativity or loss, the LOA literally brings about your command. For example if you passionately believe that you don’t want to lose your lover, and then they leave you anyway, it is not because the LOA didn’t work; it is because it does work based on the fact that you concentrated on the loss of your lover and not the retention of your lover.
If you desire a better life and want to attain your innermost goals and desires you have to take what comes with it. When you passionately desire a better life, events, circumstances and people begin to change. You might get fired, end a friendship or move to a new town. These things are not necessarily negative; they might be what is necessary to happen for you to attain your dreams. The universe will bring about events, circumstances and people to help you attain what you wish in ways you might not have ever considered. It is only your job to create the beliefs to support your desires, not determine how they will manifest.
Most people daily become distracted from the truth because they fail to see the bigger picture. What is distraction? According to dictionary.com, distraction is mental distress or derangement. It is a process which divides attention or prevents concentration. It can also mean an act that amuses, entertains or diverts one’s attention from something that appears negative, hard or difficult. Distraction is a division or disorder caused by dissension. When an outcome doesn’t match what you thought it should be, there is a strong disagreement between intention and manifestation; in other words, dissension. The resultant state is a person being distracted from their focus. Something doesn’t add up and the easy way out is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Statements like “The LOA doesn’t work” or “It’s voodoo” are made by individuals who are ignorant and truly unobservant to the laws of nature. It’s no wonder that the synonyms of distraction are madness, lunacy, insanity and craziness.
When you are continually distracted from your focus your thoughts begin to align themselves with similar thoughts. As these thoughts are accepted as true without significant proof, they become your beliefs. These thoughts and beliefs become a faction. A faction is a cohesive group of dissension within a larger group. If most of your thoughts and beliefs are progressive and contribute to growth and expansion, then you have a great starting place to develop and actualize your desire. However, if you have a faction of thoughts and beliefs that “pooh-pooh” every movement toward the actualization of your desires, then you need to clear them from your consciousness. In filmmaking, a faction treats real people or events as if they were fictional or uses them as an integral part of a fictional account. The parallel here is remarkable in that these thoughts and beliefs are fictional. They were created by you and emotionally reinforced by you. The synonyms for faction are discord, disagreement, schism, split or friction. A split from what? Thinking based on facts and not conjecture and supposition.
A distraction faction is a group of thoughts and beliefs that don’t contribute to focus and sanity. Thoughts and beliefs such as “I am not good enough”, “I will never have enough money” and “I am a loser” are grouped into what I call a Distraction Faction. In order to attain focus one must do what is necessary to bring all of the elements of the universe in to play to create one’s desires. A simple experiment in physics will illustrate this point. If you take a magnifying glass on a sunny day and place it over a sheet of paper where the focal point is above the paper, it will never ignite. If you move the focal point down to the surface of the paper it will ignite. If you keep thoughts and beliefs in the DF as a blockage to your ignition, you will keep trying and trying and eventually lose hope of ever attaining your goals and dreams. You need to take the action of removing any and all erroneous beliefs from your mind in order to clear the channel between you and your desires and ignite your dreams.
How do you do this? You educate yourself in the workings of the universe, your mind and self-improvement. Stop being distracted by the TV, radio, internet, friends and life in general from attaining YOUR goals and dreams. Read the truth about your spiritual growth. Focus requires commitment, dedication and discipline. It means you give up what doesn’t work and replace it with what does work. It means you stop deceiving yourself into thinking and believing that something is real, true and valid without proof. Make your life count and stop lying to yourself about what is dear to you. Live your life with Attraction Action and attain your dreams. The alternative is to grow old with the debilitating effects of the Distraction Faction and never accomplish what your heart desires. Don’t go to your grave with the song still in your heart. It is YOUR choice! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
THE WAY IT IS
ACCEPTING THE APPEARANCE OF THINGS
Today we will examine a figure of speech that promotes the acceptance of things as the way they appear to be and simultaneously suggests that nothing can be done to change the outcome of these things. Bruce Hornsby and the Range released a song by this title in 1986 and the lyrics depicted a lily white attitude toward people of other races by trying to convince them that their social standing was the way it is. Following is a sample of the lyrics:
VERSE 1 Standing in line marking time- Waiting for the welfare dime 'Cause they can't buy a job The man in the silk suit hurries by As he catches the poor ladies' eyes Just for fun he says "get a job"
Mr. Hornsby starts out by creating a picture of individuals who can’t afford to buy a job. They are waiting in the welfare line to be able to get the necessary things they need to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads. They don’t have a job because they either can’t find one or they don’t have the training or education to get a good job. The man who has a job or has money walks by in his silk suit and looks down on the poor lady and smugly says “get a job.” In other words, he makes a judgment about somebody he doesn’t even know as a person (and about their circumstances). The chorus echoes the futility he is trying to project to those whom he considers beneath him by implanting the thought of that’s just the way it is and that some things will never change. But is that true? Hardly! It is if the person listening to these statements accepts them as true and repeatedly harbors those thoughts. Mr. Hornsby leaves the chorus on a positive note with the statement “But don’t you believe them.” A very powerful and true statement.
PREJUDICES
How many of us have heard similar statements about our talents, abilities, or status in life and actually believed them; or even worse, never challenged them? Mr. Hornsby finishes with the last verse:
VERSE 3 Well they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got a little more
But it only goes so far
Because the law don't change another's mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar
Here, Mr. Hornsby is referring to the landmark legislation known as The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (in the United States) that extended voting rights and outlawed racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (Source: Wikipedia). The U.S. Government’s attempt at leveling the playing field for non-whites was made a law, but it didn’t change the minds of those so pre-programmed to reject those who were a different race from them into hiring people of color. History has proven that you can change the laws but you can’t change what people accept and believe as true until they realize that their beliefs are based on prejudice; a system of thought and behaviors that are learned, usually from friends and family.
Prejudice is an unfavorable (or favorable) and preconceived opinion or feeling formed beforehand without knowledge, thought, or reason (dictionary.com). In other words prejudice is based on an opinion instead of fact. It is a supposition about someone that is not based on logic or reason. Those who accept some behavioral facts about another group of people and form opinions that everyone in that group manifests those particular behaviors are guilty of stereotyping. In other words, their behavior is the way it is. Bull!
CHALLENGE YOUR BELIEFS
Only those who accept another’s evaluation and subsequent judgments believe that things are the way they are and that they cannot be changed. Why would anyone with any intelligence buy into this malarkey? It gets back to the energy involved in choosing to think your way through to a conclusion or simply react to a set of circumstances. We are all guilty of holding onto beliefs that block the manifestation of our desires. We accept these beliefs as true without challenge.
How many times does something have to occur a certain way before you accept it as true? Once? Twice? Three times? Just because something happens three times doesn’t necessarily mean that it will always happen that way. If the same occurrence happened at a different time or location the results could be dramatically different. How would you know that unless you challenged your accepted belief and pursued another course of action? When the results you seek are not manifested, analyze what you have done and take another approach.
ACCEPT THE TRUTH BASED ON FACTS
The only reason that events, circumstances and occurrences transpire in our lives is because we have given attention to them. But what about accidents? Did you leave your house today planning to get into an accident? Probably not, but what was your state of mind? Were you operating from fear or were you operating from a consciousness of faith? Your mindset has a lot to do with how you react to or pro-act in your environment. Did fear make you overly cautious or did faith make you overly confident?
If someone else arrives at a conclusion such as the way it is doesn’t mean that you have to accept it as true. If you do, you will subconsciously set out to confirm their beliefs. Since your attention is focused on these apparent facts, you will be more aware of re-occurring facts and give more attention to them. For example, scientific evidence shows that global warming is a reality. It reveals that climate change is occurring and that it will be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. Weather will become more violent and the collated facts support this conclusion. Yet, U.S. Republican nay-sayers and delusional talk show hosts dispute this information to an unaware audience to pad their bottom line. The problem comes when interpreting the facts. Remember, fact becomes opinion when it is evaluated against an individual’s ego. It then becomes a judgment.
FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON WHAT YOU DESIRE
Whatever state we are in when we give our attention to something will accentuate the creation of subsequent events, occurrences and circumstances. If we are in a negative mind set our attention will accept the way it is and we will reject any way available to change the way it is. If we are in a positive mind set our attention will accept the way it will be and we will reject any way available to change the way it will be. It is a matter of choice for us to either accept or reject others’ opinions of reality. Why choose to be unfulfilled and unsatisfied in life? Why accept the unawareness of what other’s feel you need? Your imagination creates reality. God has given all of us the ability to imagine a better world and a better life. Choose to embrace the best for yourself and reject the opinions of those uninformed individuals who don’t have your best interests at heart. While you are accepting and believing their conclusions, they are fulfilling their dreams by stifling yours. Choose happiness and accomplishment. The rewards are yours if you give your positive attention to it and don’t accept the way it is. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
ARE WE ALL BRAINWASHED?
Are we all brainwashed by the ease of access afforded by our technological society? Do we expect instant gratification for reality because we have become accustomed to it virtually? Brainwashing is “a method for systematically changing attitudes or altering beliefs, originated in totalitarian countries; especially through the use of torture, drugs, or psychological-stress techniques. It is any method of controlled systematic indoctrination, especially one based on repetition or confusion: e.g. brainwashing by TV commercials. It is also any instance of subjecting or being subjected to such techniques: e.g. efforts to halt the brainwashing of captive audiences [dictionary.com].” It can also be referred to as being ’psyched’ out by someone who has a mesmerizing persona; a Svengali or Bible beating preacher.
These techniques mostly work because the person being influenced subconsciously ‘wants’ to believe these ‘things’ are true. An open mind can be both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ at the same time depending on a ‘gullibility factor’. Most people are gullible because they are too trusting of others or are naive to a deceptive person’s motives. Why? Because they do not know how to discern the behavior of others and cannot correctly judge their motives.
When we were children we read children’s books, comic books or watched ‘super human’ movies. We fantasized about saving the world or being admired for helping others. This was our egos looking for recognition and admiration. As we grew up we came to learn how to be ‘human’ and deal with the adult world. In most areas of life we have done this except when it comes to our spirituality. Many of us still read the religious ‘comic books’; the Bible and Quran or any other religious book that claims Literary Authoritarianism. We believe in these stories and accept them as true even though we have no concrete evidence to prove they actually transpired. We choose to have ‘faith’ and ‘believe’ that they existed because it comforts our egos and keeps us in mediocrity.
Religious texts have become our ‘security blankets’ that we refer to when things go awry. But why do we keep looking outside of ourselves for things that can only be found within? We are conditioned or ‘brainwashed’ by our environments to be compliant with our perceptions of reality. Perception of reality and reality are two different things! Reality exists as an extension of the omniverse just as we exist as an extension of it.
Perception of reality is, in reality, a copy of reality that we process in our brains to have meaning for us. The seemingly ‘independent’ reality becomes subjective to our perceptions after they are ‘filtered’ through our individual belief systems for validity. If they don’t align with our rigid belief systems, whether or not some of the beliefs are accurate or erroneous, we reject or accept what we experience as being relevant or not relevant to our ego-guided self-survival mechanism. We utilize our ‘copies’ of reality to determine what our next move will be based on our perceptions of reality and NOT reality itself. We have, in effect, been ‘brainwashed’ by our perceptions into ‘believing’ something and not caring whether it is true or not; let alone being valid or not! This is the point where we have brainwashed ourselves into believing that we are not being brainwashed.
Our emotional security blankets have made us warm and cozy and we do not want to leave our comfort zones. Years go by and we marvel at what others accomplish and experience while we sit in the security of our own little bubble not even knowing what we are missing by experiencing the true joys in life. Burst that bubble of being brainwashed into believing that what some ‘comic book’ says is the truth!
Go within and KNOW the truth directly from the Divine and stop allowing your emotions embedded in your belief system to rule your life! Speak from the Divine instead of just believing. Do the greater works that Christ had spoken of and BE the Divine in action! It is our individual and collective destinies!
Be diligent and be focused on what is REAL and not what is a copy of reality. Be ye therefore perfect! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
In my article The Aspects of Humanity I delineated the four main aspects of human behavior. These aspects either react to internal cues and to the environment or initiate behaviors by the process of pro-acting. These aspects operate on repeated internal or environmental cues and subsequent reaction to those cues. Over a period of time our aspects develop an intelligence in regard to those repeated behaviors. These intelligences are a result of learned and accepted behaviors.
Physical Intelligence
For example, an athlete who day after day practices their sport develops a physical intelligence in his body in regards to that sport. This has been very apparent in the Olympics recently. The 2010 Canadian Gold Medal winner of the Moguls Ski Competition, Alexandre Bilodeau, demonstrated this ability. His torso and head were completely in vertical alignment while his knees were bending and his legs were following the contour of the snow mounds on the downhill course. Athletes possess a coordination of body and mind that demonstrates their physical intelligence. Athletes exercise and focus on different parts of their bodies for their PI to develop neuro-muscular pathways. This is attained by encountering repeated resistance that, through consistent practice, slowly overcomes that resistance. This consistency carves new pathways and beliefs.
An observation made by an Olympic sportscaster detailed the mind-body connection in the following paraphrased statement: When a skier looks down on the mountain his mind says that to make the move from the top is certain suicide. But through his training and the conviction that he has done it before, he makes the move and dismisses the negative thoughts he is experiencing. Why? Because of his faith in his physical intelligence to overcome any obstacle regardless of the threat of personal safety.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EI) describes the ability, capacity, skill or, in a self-perceived ability, to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups (Source: Wikipedia). It is the ability to accurately perceive one’s environment or internal cues and process them effectively and intelligently without reacting based on assumptions or opinions. For example, when a child doesn’t get what they want they might respond with crying or tantrums. Why? Because they have yet to develop the emotional intelligence to manage and control their emotions.
Adults sometimes forget that they are not their emotions. Perceived threats sometimes result in violence or lashing out at others, circumstances or occurrences. A person who has mastered their emotions has developed emotional intelligence. This comes from an awareness that all events, circumstances or occurrences are not necessarily what they seem to be. In other words, EI is an understanding that the demands of the ego are not the only concern. It recognizes the needs, wants, desires and expectations of others in regards to themselves and their environments. It seeks a balance between selfishness and selflessness; between a social conscience and a personal conscience.
EI comes from years of understanding and modifying your behaviors to pro-act effectively in your environment to bring about the desires you seek and the subsequent expectations you manifest.
Mental Intelligence
Mental Intelligence is the capacities for abstract thought, reasoning, planning and problem solving, the use of language, and to learn. It includes intellectual traits such as creativity, personality, character, knowledge, and wisdom (Source: Wikipedia). MI is the ability for our brains to process information from internal physical cues and external environmental cues. These stimuli generate thoughts that we either hold on to (beliefs) or dismiss (rejections). Thoughts are chemically based electrical processes that contain perceived snapshots or graphical pictures that are copies of internal or external cues or perceptions.
Abstract thought is the ability to reason instead of emotionally reacting. Reason is the ability to observe the facts and infer the causes without opinions or prejudices. Planning is the process to map out future actions based on learned results of previous thoughts and actions and develop new thoughts and actions to accomplish goals. Problem solving is the ability to observe the facts about a perceived problem and develop solutions to overcome that problem and manifest a new and more effective result. Language is the ability to observe objects, infer archetypes and verbally express them in understandable terms based on graphical symbolism. It involves learned behavior from repeated verbal and/or graphical cues. Learning is the ability to modify your behavior through practice, training, or experience. Thoughts are the initiators to all behaviors. Thought-forms are a result of consistent beliefs and manifesting behaviors into your environment; they are a result of mastering all of the above abilities and consistently applying them in your experience.
Creativity the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships and to create original, progressive or meaningful new ideas, forms, methods or interpretations (Source: Dictionary.com); it is based on an individual’s ability to imagine other scenarios. Imagination does create reality when people utilize their creative abilities. According to Wikipedia, creativity is a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. It is also known as divergent thought (as opposed to convergent thought which uses logic). Personality is the sum total of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects manifested as the qualities and character of an individual. According to Wikipedia, personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. Character is the aggregate of traits and qualities of an individual. It guides an individual to either protect oneself or to protect others as well as themselves. Character is the snapshot of the core values of one’s ego.
Knowledge is an awareness of the facts, truths or principles resulting from individual investigation into perceived facts of events, occurrences or other individuals. It is an understanding of learned information. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, knowledge is the expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information; or awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. In other words, when a person understands how to correctly use learned information they have gained knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action (Source: Dictionary.com). According to Wikipedia, wisdom is a deep understanding of people, things, events or situations, empowering the ability to choose or act to consistently produce the optimum results with a minimum of time and energy. Wisdom is the ability to optimally (effectively and efficiently) apply perceptions and knowledge and so produce the desired results. Wisdom is comprehension of what is true or right coupled with optimum judgment as to action. In other words, when a person understands how to correctly use knowledge they have gained wisdom.
Character is a function of the ego. Personality is a result of your combined aspects of humanity. Creativity is a result of the ability to think out of the box. Knowledge comes from diligent study of information and wisdom comes from diligent study of knowledge. By combining your character and personality into creative thoughts and behaviors, you amplify your ability to gain knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom are a result of mastering your mind-body connection, your emotions and your mental understanding of occurrences, events and people in your life. Knowledge and wisdom are not static. They only grow by consistently applying them in your experience.
Spiritual Intelligence
SI is the ability to see beyond logic and reason into realms of thought that most reactive people don’t see. According to Wikipedia, Spiritual Intelligence is a term used to discern a suite or set of propensities comprising: perceptions, intuitions, cognitions, etc., related to spirituality and/or religiosity, especially spiritual capital. Spiritual capital is a concept that involves the quantification of the value to individuals, groups and society of spiritual, moral or psychological beliefs and practices.
Your spiritual intelligence is based on your values. What are your values? They are the relative worth, merit, or importance of your thoughts and behaviors. If your thoughts and/or behaviors provide positive outcomes for you, then they are good and reflect good values. However, they are still relative and of a personal or cultural status that is subjective to experience and absolute values. Absolute values are independent of an individual or cultural viewpoint; they are objective in nature. It is the same regardless of individual experience. Your personal and cultural values are the initiation to a deeper awareness and understanding of absolute values; that your choices and the intensity in which you manifest those choices are absolute, whether they are considered negative or positive. In other words, you personal values determine your recognition of the fact that your expressions in the environment have an absolute value. The results you obtain for being selfish will be different than the results you obtain if you are magnanimous.
Spirituality
In Spirituality, God or the universe is the source of everything and the benchmark of absolute value. Emulating the behaviors of creation from God and the universe is the ultimate model for us. There is no waste. There is only abundance. If you cannot see this, then you need to adjust your personal values to recognize these facts. Then, and only then, can you ever hope to manifest your deepest desires and dreams. Align your intelligences with the absolute values demonstrated in God’s universe. Model those behaviors and reap the rewards you so richly deserve. Get out of your own way! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
THE SMELL OF FEAR
Can we smell fear? Do we have a built in reptilian brain mechanism that ‘senses’ fear and other emotions? Recent biological research in the Netherlands shows that we can ‘smell’ fear and other emotions like ‘disgust’. In fact, most recent research in our ability to sense our environment shows that our senses work together in creating a ‘sensory snapshot’ of ‘slices’ of the electromagnetic spectrum that are ‘received’ by our senses and that we emotionally ‘react’ to through the constructs of ‘fight or flight’.
Our 5 physical senses are miraculous receptors of environmental stimuli. They receive electromagnetic and mechanical ‘waves’ in frequency ranges and convert them to chemical reactions that travel through our bodies to our brains. Our nerves operate on a ‘sodium-potassium’ pump that discharges electrical energy that our brains receive and ‘react’ with chemical interchanges that generate ‘thought’ energy to either ‘run toward’ or ‘run away from’ environmental stimuli. Our internal mechanism of environmental interaction is quite elaborate, yet very simple. It generally works quite well most of the time except when influenced by outside or self-induced ‘chemical’ alterations.
What about our speculated 6th and 7th senses? Our sixth ‘psychic’ sense has been documented by scientific research and postulated based on a ‘probability’ of its existence. We sense ‘feelings’ from our environments without respect to distance or proximity of the source of those feelings. These, in turn, get programmed into our subconscious minds that automatically respond to similar occurrences repeated in our environments.
Our seventh ‘spiritual’ sense has been postulated as our channel of Divine communication. It is where we no longer ‘sense’ what is occurring outside of ourselves; it is what we ‘know’ is occurring without the backup of physical ‘facts’ and the perception of the truth and validity of those facts. This ‘knowing’ resonates in our ‘being’ and compels us to take action toward ‘averting’ or ‘concurring’ with occurrences in our environment as being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to our well-being. Daily meditation keeps this channel ‘open’ and ‘clear’ for us to ‘know’ what is truly going on in our respective environments.
Our seventh sense is not something that we can prove physically, but that doesn’t stop us from using it. Much like magnetism; ask any engineer or scientist ‘what’ it is and they will come up with explanations of what it ‘does’ but NOT what it ‘is’. That doesn’t stop us from using the ‘effects’ of it to provide over 5 billion mobile devices throughout the world in order to communicate with each other.
All of our senses work together to create a ‘snapshot’ of our world that we subsequently ‘react’ to or ‘proact’ from in order to traverse through our lives and affect our environments. A healthy body, a balance of appropriate emotions, a clear mind and a ‘spiritual’ communion are the ingredients to an effective recipe for growth and expansion. Use the gifts of our senses to navigate through life and co-create a world that reflects beauty, peace and love. It is up to each and every one of us to purge our beings from erroneous beliefs derived from our experiences and celebrate the beauty that life has to offer. Be ye therefore perfect. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.
WHY SHOULD WE STUDY
OUR BEHAVIORS?
In the past articles I have outlined the necessity for scientifically studying your behaviors in order to determine their origins. But, why should we study our behaviors? Does it matter where our behaviors originate from? Is it significant to our growth and expansion as individuals? To use a political catch phrase from the significantly uninformed I’ll say, “You betcha!” Until you understand your personal motivations you won’t be able utilize your strengths and rectify your weaknesses. Walking through life without an understanding of your emotions and where they originate is like trying to navigate in a room without any light. Yes, you can feel your way around and navigate by stumbling on objects you didn’t anticipate, perhaps injuring yourself in the process. But there is a better way. Digging down deep into you emotional wellspring helps reveal your deepest desires. Knowing your desires helps you to design a plan to achieve them. The end result of that plan is your goal. It’s what sets direction for you in life and gives you a sense of purpose. Tom Morris said, “A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an important distinction to make. You can have a desire you don't intend to act on. But you can't have a goal you don't intend to act on.” Goals are what drive you on to accomplishment and what betters the human condition as a whole.
But what of desires? Once we dig down deep and uncover the motivating factors in our lives, what do with them? In the Bible Proverbs 13:19 states, “The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is the abomination to fools to depart from evil.” But why is it so sweet? The Latin meaning of the word desire is of the father. Desires are the spiritual seeds that are planted within you that need to be watered and cared for in order to grow. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “Within every tree seed is a quality of treeness.” This treeness doesn’t manifest until it is placed in the soil, watered and sunlit. Peeling off the layers of emotional convolution allows us the opportunity to view our humanness. If we reject our spiritual gifts that drive us, we only follow the selfish desires of our egos; whose only concern is protect itself. Controlling our egos helps us to recognize the importance of others. In A Gift for God, Mother Theresa said, “It is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully.”
Understanding our emotions and where they originate from affords us the opportunity to choose a state of allowance to the acceptance of our desires. In order to attract the people, circumstances and events that help us to grow we must feel our commitment to our desires. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "There’s nothing capricious in nature, and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feels it." Without a feeling of passion about our desires they will stagnate. But you might say, “I don’t have the wherewithal or ability to achieve my desires.” Emerson further stated, “You wouldn’t have the desire if you didn’t have the ability to achieve it.” We all have unknown and untapped talents that can only be discovered by analyzing our behaviors, motivations and desires.
In the book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill explains that desire is the starting point of all achievement. The mastering of your emotions and your ability to feel passionate about your desires are the keys to manifesting them through effective goal setting and seeking. Your emotions are the engine that moves your body to either avoid pain or seek pleasure. In fact, some scientific studies have shown that the avoiding of pain is a more significant motivator than the seeking of pleasure. Other studies have shown that the seeking of pleasure is a greater motivator. Aristotle said, “Where perception is, there also are pain and pleasure, and where these are, there, of necessity, is desire.” Desires are manifested by our emotions. Without the ability to feel our desires, they will stagnate and never manifest.
The most significant obstacle to manifesting your desires is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of success or fear of failure. Fear of the unknown is a state where you don’t know what to expect, so you don’t even try. Tony Robbins summed up fear of success and fear of failure into fear of rejection. Either we are afraid of what our friends will think of us if we are too successful or what they will think of us if we fail at an undertaking. In both cases we fear being rejected by our friends so we don’t make a move. These secondary fears are immobilizing fears. The only way desires are manifested are if we mobilize them. Francis Bacon said, “It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.” Do you have a miserable state of mind? Do you want to know how to get a fulfilling state of mind? Then remove unnecessary fears and analyze your motivations and desires. Get to know the real you.
But are your desires really you? In Desire John Eldridge says, “We are desire. It is the essence of the human soul, the secret of our existence. Absolutely nothing of human greatness is ever accomplished without it. Not a symphony has been written, a mountain climbed, an injustice fought, or a love sustained apart from desire. Desire fuels our search for the life we prize. Our desire, if we will listen to it, will save us from committing soul-suicide, the sacrifice of our hearts on the altar of ‘getting by’. The same old thing is not enough. It never will be.” In this quote Mr. Eldridge also addresses the result of not recognizing your desires and not seeking and setting your goals; mediocrity. Mediocrity is a state where you seek the barely adequate or inferior things in life. Is that living with passion? Hardly! It is settling for second best because you either think you don’t deserve your desires, you don’t know what steps to take or you are too lazy to take them. It depends on your viewpoint.
Are you a pessimist or an optimist? Do you see the glass as half-full or half empty? Do you see a universe of abundant resources or do you see an environment of limited resources? Two people can examine the same set of circumstances and see completely different things. If you are living with unsatisfied desires, is your outlook on manifesting those desires hopeful or dismal? In The Art of Optimism, William Dewitt Hyde stated, “Unsatisfied desire is the characteristic feature of human life. That is the common fact out of which both pessimism and optimism are constructed. Dwell on the impossibility of ever getting a state of complete and permanent satisfaction with what you have, and you become a pessimist. Dwell on the opportunity for endless growth and conquest which this same fact makes possible, and you become an optimist.” Are you a person who encourages others to seek out their desires or are you a person who nay says every dream anyone has? Being a pessimist or an optimist is a choice. It is a result of your perspective. Take a walk to 180 degrees and see the other side. You will be enlightened.
Our beliefs are a result of the repetition of accepted thoughts in our brains. When we choose to accept specific thoughts as true over time, they become beliefs. We rarely challenge them. Why? Because we accept what they have taught us as true. They might have been true at a specific time, but they may no longer be valid. Orison Swett Marden said, “Our destiny changes with our thought; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire.” When we align our thoughts, beliefs and desires, we can set goals and actively seek those goals. It is a progressive choice to become the best that we can be. Understanding our motivations, beliefs and desires helps us to choose a methodical course of action.
Once we have set our goals down on paper, we need to expect the complete manifestation of those goals. Expectation requires faith in the desired outcome. Everything that humankind has created in our world was once a thought in the mind of a person. It became a thought-form by the desire to create it, the passion to construct it and the expectation that it would be completed. An unknown writer once said, “By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” If this is true, then this is a good reason to understand your behaviors, motivations and desires. Emerson said, “Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.” Stop wishing and start creating. Knowing why you are doing something helps you to pinpoint what you need to do to achieve your desired results. Emerson also said, “The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.” Seek out the benefits of attaining your goals. Picture them in your mind daily. Revel in the joy of accomplishing your goals. Only by a successful analysis of your emotional behaviors can you begin to truly create the life that you desire. Have fun getting to understand the real you!
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