Perception – It’s a Matter of Perspective

Breaking the Spell (Chapter )

Eight

Perception – It’s a Matter of Perspective

The development of human perception is still often regarded as ‘spooky’, or as not a ‘normal’ pursuit, whereas in truth it is very necessary. It is accurate to say that a person has potential beyond their dreams. So much so that dreams sometimes inhibit a person because they cannot perceive deep enough or far enough.

Higher perception is a faculty that when operative is able to distinguish between what is information – the assembly of facts – and what is knowledge. While not everyone has the faculty of higher perception operating within them, many have the capacity to acquire it. There have always been a number of individuals within humanity that have aspired toward acquiring a higher functioning degree of perception. The efforts to achieve this have always been varied and with mixed results. It is therefore important that society, with its numerous forms of conditioning, does not dilute or distract these aims into lesser objectives. The focus and intention must remain resolute and committed. Many ‘metaphysical ways’ are discarded forms of previous teachings aimed at raising human consciousness (like a caterpillar that sheds its chrysalis). A person must ensure that they do not become distracted by attraction to a non-functional and deteriorated system. Perception within a person is that which is able to recognize between information and knowledge; and between secondary (decayed) and primary (genuine) traces of real inner wisdom and insight.

Many so-called ‘spiritual teachings’ have fallen to a lower level than their original functioning. Many now operate through repetition and/or emotional release mechanisms. In such systems there is an absence of real experience; replaced instead by subjective experience that the person takes to be significant, and an indicator of ‘higher knowledge’. This relates to what was said previously: that ‘False gold only exists because there is such thing as the Real’. It is like arriving in a new country for the first time and finding that all the citizens wear different parts of a computer as fashion accessories – they are trendy; they look good; they are the ‘next best thing’; they imply status, etc. – yet no one knows that the parts should be put together, or how, in order to produce a functioning whole: a computer. So too is much spiritual knowledge in this day and age so scattered, misunderstood, and inappropriately used.

It is a characteristic of our human conditioning to collect various fragments and to consider this gathering together as a profitable and worthwhile enterprise – like going to a flea market and coming back with a handful of bargains. In the same way, people often feel that by collecting, dabbling, in various metaphysical-spiritual subjects – gathering bits of ‘useful’ information – that they are learning and developing upon a correct inner path. Yet the haphazard collection of shiny objects will not necessarily produce a functioning system. And it is highly doubtful that it ever will. This is a matter of perception, which needs to be developed upon. For this reason a degree of personal perception is crucial in recognizing the wheat from the chaff.

Perception can be like trying to explain color to a blind person. Our over-reliance upon a stagnant form of intellectualism obstructs the true growth of our finer perceptions. Once the bars of intellectual imprisonment have been removed there is the possibility for more subtle modes of perception to operate. The previous sentence must not be grasped as an intellectual hypothesis. Our conditioning (intellectual, emotional, mental) often creates a fight with those impacts and influences that could be most beneficial to us – just as a drowning person may fight off their rescuers amid the struggle. What we can do to help the ‘rescue’ is to shift our perspectives and their emphasis of attention: away from forms of dogma (linearity, regulations, ritual, etc.) onto more conceptual forms that can be learned through experience. In other words, lose the linearity and make friends with the conceptual!

Too many people, too much of the time, wish to talk about the various ‘shiny pieces’ and not about the whole; and often attempt to persuade others to exalt and praise the virtue of the pieces as if to validate their worth. With correct perspective, a person can ‘step away’ from these fruitless enterprises and focus upon the inner whole. Remember: having more cannot compensate us for being less.

Our finer perceptions may at first seem like a stranger to us; yet this is only through disuse, like an underused or slack muscle. Perception requires exercise; it is a matter of correct perspective. To enable correct perspective a person needs to practice discernment, and an awareness of presence and energy – as discussed in the previous essays/chapters. The right kind of perspective, under the right conditions, can develop a person – and help to break the spell. One step to begin this is to familiarize oneself with these ideas, to grasp them and feel their worth; yet not intellectually nor emotionally but with an inner organ of discernment. As the saying goes, the bird with its beak in salt water all year round does not know fresh water.

If a person is not ready – not ‘equipped’ – to perceive certain things then these things do not exist for the person. Perceptions that are suited to present conditions may be lower than those perceptions that may be possible for a person to achieve. It is important to recognize (to perceive) that levels of development are always possible and that the ‘present moment’ only represents a stage along the way, and is almost never final. If you do not, or cannot, understand something then you can do little about it.

Each of us, in varying degrees, has the perception that we need to move forward. Some perceive it as an urge; others as a desire; or as a niggling suspicion. By not correctly acting, with perception, on this impulse humankind is open to a sense of dissatisfaction, which can increase according to the influence of external circumstances. In short, humanity has the function to move forward along its evolutionary destiny. The danger is that elements within our human societies may create false substitutes that provide temporary ‘fulfillment’. If our perceptions are limited to a lower capacity, then they are vulnerable to attracting stimuli, impulses, influences, etc., that feed these perceptions and which perpetuate the entrapment of our perception. These are our ‘narcotic distractions’ that come in many forms and which serve to distract us – to put a ‘spell’ on us – and thus artificially yet deliberately interfere with our capacity and potentials.

In such states of diminished perception it becomes easy for the human mind to change its thinking and to start to believe that all current circumstances are a result of ‘fate’. Therefore, such experiences/states as uncertainty, insecurity, incompleteness, etc., are all part of ‘fate’s struggle’ and are forces that a person must accept in their lives. The extreme of this thinking is to view emptiness as a valid state in life: this perspective is nihilistic, or at best pseudo-existentialist. The forces of inertia must be overcome. To lose the force of forward momentum in our lives is to surrender to the ‘spell’ of our life’s conditioning. Internal energy must be provided in order to overcome the obstacles of external inertia. In other words, each person is required to make an individual effort to develop their perception, and thus increase their energetic state. Through self-development of perception a person can break free from distorted realities, from erratic energetic environments, and to glimpse other ‘realities’. We have the capacity to define the fabric of our own perceptions, and to seek corresponding stimuli. It is our responsibility to extend our own tools of perception.

There is no better time than the present to begin breaking our old perceptual patterns because humanity now has assistance: it is timely. That is, the evolutionary impulse that is now making its presence felt within humanity and upon the Earth facilitates changing patterns. It will be easier to break away from ingrained patterns – mentally, emotionally, and behaviorally – than at any other time in our present existence. In such periods, it is possible to make radical re-patterning and to develop perceptual insights.

Perception is a form of deep intuition, which means learning to trust our insights. We can begin by familiarizing ourselves with the taste of our intuitions; to follow them, a little at first until we gain confirmation of their correctness. As we receive validation of our intuitions both the signals forthcoming and our recognition and action on them will increase. This will confirm to us the truth of our own inner perceptions, until such taste becomes almost second nature to us.

We don’t need to have expectations of immediately perceiving and understanding the bigger picture – the so-called ‘Grand Design’ – but we can begin by working to see how the smaller picture begins with oneself. A good way to start is by setting small yet achievable goals that can be accomplished. As previously described, we should begin by focusing and training our intentions, and to support these intentions with the appropriate energy. Working step-by-step, in incremental phases, we can develop ourselves to a more fully responsible human being in the world. This is a true goal of spiritual work on oneself: to be fully human.

What is important in these times is to gain L.I.F.E. – to Live an Integrated Fulfilling Existence. Yet as many ancient mystics and spiritual teachers have stated – people will do almost anything to avoid working on themselves! To aim for L.I.F.E we will need balanced emotions of positivity, creativity, motivation, and enthusiasm. Also, we will need to be perceptive of our emotional states and to avoid being sucked down into the negative emotional trappings of fear, helplessness, and insecurity. There is the danger that we get caught- up in a world of increasing acceleration and we give diminishing time and attention to the ‘timeless’ resources within us. We become too distracted to the time-orientated life outside of us; in contrast, our timeless realm inside seems to us to have no power, no attraction, no control (or no ‘place’) in our outer existence. We may allow ourselves a brief ten minutes of meditation in our busy lives to connect with our inner ‘timeless space’; and then we shelve it, relegate it to an ephemeral side of us that we only speak to in rare moments or when stressed. We fail to see that it is exactly this part of us which has the capacity to enhance each physical moment, to infuse the external with our energy signatures.

It is beneficial to be perceptive of when the emotional level is too engaged as this leaves little or no energy left over for spiritual activity. It is important to realize that there is a difference between learning something and feeling good. The priority is to be balanced, and to have harmony and equilibrium: happiness comes naturally from these states. One of the secrets is to restrict emotionality to areas where it can be useful and functional. We know that if we eat too much we get obese; yet there is no similar measure about the intake of emotion. Much of our ‘cultural nutrition’, especially in the West, is charged with emotion – call it high-calorie emotion. This causes confusion, reinforces habits of conditioning, and is an obstacle in the way of refining perception and self-observation. We need to begin to measure our emotional intake, be able to dose it, and to stop binging on it.

Capacities within each of us can be stimulated and exercised, just like a muscle, and which operate more clearly when a person is free from obsessional tendencies, heedlessness, over- anxiety, and over-dramatization. Thus, balance and equilibrium is the real issue to be solved. Normal human behavior is to seek emotional satisfaction out of every situation, whether good or bad. Many religious groupings use service, either consciously or unconsciously, as a means for people to discharge ambition and/or ego.

There is an old oral tale that tells of a rich merchant who, nearing the end of his life, wanted to give something back to the community after all of his devious trading in past years. So he paid a vast amount of wealth for the construction of a magnificent church that stood in the center of his town. When the beautiful edifice was completed the merchant ordered a golden plaque to be placed over the front entrance with the words: ‘This house of prayer has been generously provided by…’ and the merchant’s name was put proudly for all to see. A few years later the merchant died and on arriving at the pearly gates of heaven he met with St. Peter who looked into the illustrious register of people’s lives to see if they are worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. St. Peter went through each of the merchant’s misdemeanors one by one until there was a conspicuous list. After this he then went through the merchant’s positive contributions until, finally, the merchant found himself down by one positive contribution. ‘But,’ stammered the merchant, ‘I built that beautiful church near the end of my life. Surely this is enough to compensate and to get me into heaven?’ St. Peter shook his head slowly and replied – ‘I’m afraid you received your reward for that one while you were still on Earth.’

I guess you can’t get rewarded twice! Many of us continue to be caught-up in our traditions, histories, rituals, and formalities – not realizing it is these very same things that serve to block us from perceiving the subtlety of our current reality. It is as if we are a train on its track, restrained in its direction by the fixed route of the rails, and not able to veer off onto other paths. We are almost completely unaware of how our cultures are full of suggestions, offering avenues of opportunities in one direction but not another. We therefore need to be on guard against and be aware of such suggestions, particularly critical/ negative ones. We can be completely fenced in, immobilized, by suggestions that disempower us; that persuade us to conform, that tell us something isn’t possible or should not be tried. We would do well to remember that such negative or disempowering criticisms more often than not come from those who are unable to validate that which is outside the remit of their perceptions. How can such criticisms be valid when most of the time their judgment of familiar things is faulty?

To summarize, people tend to behave within either of two camps: i) within the normal conditioned mode, as produced by their localized culture and environment; or ii) in reaction against the cultural norms. Yet both these display a polarized way of being. There is another, more productive and beneficial way: manifesting a certain form of perception – consciousness – which gives one a different perspective on circumstances and events. It is possible to cultivate this subtle form of perception because it is working within each of us all the time; we are only not aware of it because of our reliance upon the other two modes.

It is important to increase one’s perception of it, which can be achieved by the previous ‘steps’, such as self-vigilance, stepping away, and increased awareness of our energy states. Such perception – or deep intuition – within a person cannot be verified by ordinary means. Rather, it carries its own form of self-validation; that is, by a person ‘obtaining’ information that cannot be acquired by any other way. This means of working toward breaking the spell is not for any moral or ethical purpose – in the sense of human moral systems – but because it clears the way for a heightened form of perception to operate. Such procedures and ‘steps’ toward breaking the spell should be approached quietly, calmly, and gently – not with typical human fanfare.

However, we need to allow things to disturb our attitudes and assumptions, to stimulate us to think about things which are different from our familiar patterns. This then provides us with a certain flexibility. There is no other way to capture or understand a sense of ‘meaning’ in our lives other than to become conscious to it. We must therefore work on developing our consciousness. Perhaps the first step is to begin changing our minds.

A TALE TO FINISH: A Change of Mind

God decided to come down to Earth for a quick look at how his creation was coming along.

He approached Earth and happened to look at a big tree full of howling monkeys. As He looked down, one of the monkeys happened to look up and saw him.

The monkey became excited and started to shout: ‘I see God ... I see God!’

None of the other monkeys paid any attention. Some thought the monkey was crazy or perhaps just a religious fanatic. They went on about their daily lives of collecting food, taking care of their young, fighting with each other, etc., etc. Not getting any attention, our monkey decided to try to get attention from God, and said:

‘God, Almighty, You are the Beneficent, the Merciful, please help me!’

In an instant, the monkey was transformed into a man living in his own human community. Everything changed, except for one thing: the monkey’s mind.

The monkey immediately realized that could be a problem.

‘Well, thank you God, but what about my mind?’

‘That’, said God, ‘you will have to change yourself.’

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Taken from the book ‘Breaking the Spell’ (published 2013/2020)