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If you asked someone, “Do things exist?” the response would probably be, “Of course things exist! The world is full of things. Everyone knows that there is physical stuff out there—that reality is tangible and real!”

But what allows any thing—a hand, a chair, or any other object—to exist? One way to discover the answer is to imagine a specific thing—say, your hand—expanding and expanding until there is nothing in the universe except the hand. What would happen to it? …  Really, just take a moment and try this.  You’ll be amazed at your experience … You wouldn’t see the hand anymore, would you? Why? … It would disappear because there would be nothing in the universe that was not the hand. This is a very basic concept about reality: In order for any thing to exist, there must also be not that thing.

Consider this for a moment. Can you see that any physical object is bounded by “not that object”? If an object did not have any borders—that is, if it wasn’t surrounded by “not that object”—it couldn’t be distinguished from everything else. In other words, it wouldn’t exist.

The same principle applies to nonmaterial concepts. Love and hate, peace and war, strong and weak, beautiful and ugly—these only exist and have unique attributes because they have been distinguished from each other. For example, the state of war is distinguished from peace by the presence of armed conflict. When there is no armed conflict there is peace. But if peace existed throughout the world all the time, and if the alternative (war) was unimaginable, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish peace. Peace, as a condition distinct from war, couldn’t exist.

A Universe Without Distinctions

Now imagine everything in the universe without any distinctions. It’s all just an undifferentiated whole. Can you see that there is nothing? That’s because in order for anything to exist, it must be distinguished from everything else. If no distinction is made between a specific thing and everything else, there is only an undifferentiated everything—which is another way of saying nothing.

Everything, without any distinctions, is the same as nothing. Take a moment and think about that. Until consciousness has made a distinction, nothing can possibly exist.

Therefore, the world really isn’t the way you perceive it. In fact, it isn’t any way until you perceive it that way—that is, until you distinguish it that way. You don’t even sense what’s “out there” because there’s nothing out there to be sensed. (Nothing, as we’ve seen, however, is the potential for everything before anyTHING is distinguished.) In making distinctions, we use our sensory apparatus (the five senses) as well as our perceptual framework (language, culture, and individual beliefs).

An excellent example of this point comes from a Time magazine cover story on human consciousness.

“A baby born with cataracts—an unusual but not unheard-of condition—and left untreated for as little as six months becomes permanently and irrevocably blind. If a sixty-year-old develops cataracts, an operation can restore full sight. The distinctions most of us make unconsciously and at a glance—foreground vs. background, moving vs. stationary, vertical vs. horizontal, and dozens more—are concepts that the brain has learned. It literally has to wire itself, with neurons growing out to touch and communicate with one another in an ever more sophisticated network of connections. And if those connections are not repeatedly stimulated in the first few months of life, when the brain is still in its formative period, they atrophy and die.”  (Emphasis added.)

In other words, moving and stationary or vertical and horizontal are not things “out there.” Rather they are “concepts that the brain has learned” (or distinguished) as a result of having a specific sensory apparatus (and brain), without which they couldn’t be distinguished. That means they literally wouldn’t exist.

In other words, if everyone was born with cataracts (which would be normal if everyone had that condition), our reality would not possess moving and stationary, vertical and horizontal, etc.—despite the fact that we are convinced that these are inherent attributes of reality.

Is There AnyTHING Out There?

Here’s another thought exercise that will help make it clear that what we think is “out there” is largely a function of our perceptual apparatus.  Imagine that beings from another galaxy arrived on earth.  Imagine further that instead of human eyes they had a different “viewing sense, namely, the equivalent of an electron microscope.”  When they viewed our world they might not see the solid objects we see; instead they might see atoms: electrons spinning around protons and neutrons.  They might notice that almost all of what they were viewing (the atom) was empty space.  So if these creatures were the inhabitants of earth, they might not even have a concept of solid matter.

Imagine further that instead of human ears, these visitors from space had a sense that picked up radio waves but did not hear “sounds” made in their presence.

And finally imagine that they had a sensory mechanism like dolphins, who “see” the echo of sound vibrations they send out.

These aliens would experience and describe a totally different universe than the physical universe we would swear exists all around us.

Our role in creating our reality can be seen in another area.  Apart from our perceptual apparatus, our most important tool in making distinctions and creating our reality is language.
As Edward Sapir, a noted anthropologist, has said: “We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

Language Determines How We Perceive Reality

Language is far more than a tool for communication. With language we categorize, distinguish, and create the universe. Ultimately, we perceive the world consistently with our language. For example, when we think in English, we perceive a world made up primarily of objects: people, trees, and houses. These objects do things or have things done to them using verbs. We literally see everything in the world in this fashion. We don’t perceive “things out there” because there really are things out there. That just happens to be our worldview, because in our language there is a subject, which acts upon an object, which exists independently of the subject. In the English language, independent entities (subjects and objects) are primary, rather than processes or relationships. That’s not true in every language.

As Ralph Strauch points out in his book The Reality Illusion: “Some languages are structured around quite different basic word- categories and relationships. They project very different pictures of the basic nature of reality as a result. The language of the Nootka Indians in the Pacific Northwest, for example, has only one principle word-category; it denotes happenings or events. A verbal form like ‘eventing’ might better describe this word-category, except that such a form doesn’t sound right in English, with its emphasis on noun forms. We might think of Nootka as composed entirely of verbs, except that they take no subjects or objects as English verbs do. The Nootka, then, perceive the world as a stream of transient events, rather than as the collection of more or less permanent objects which we see. Even something which we see clearly as a physical object, like a house, the Nootka perceive of as a long-lived temporal event. The literal English translation of the Nootka concept might be something like ‘housing occurs;’ or ‘it houses.’”

We swear things exist because we distinguish them though our particular perceptual apparatus and through our language.  Change those and you dramatically change the world that you think is “out there.”  There might not even be any more “things.”

Please leave your comments and questions here about today’s post.  I read all posts and answer as many as Ian.

If you found this post useful, please tell your friends and followers by using the buttons at the top of this post.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one negative belief free.

For information about eliminating 23 of the most common limiting beliefs and conditionings—which cause eight of the most common problems in our lives including a lack of confidence—and get a separate video of the WAIR? Process, please check out: http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.

To get my blog posts as podcasts, sign up for the RSS feed above or look up “Morty Lefkoe” at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

copyright ©2012 Morty Lefkoe

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At one point or another, everyone has uttered the words: “I am happy.”  And: “I am upset.”

Notice what happens when you say: “I am [something].”  You are describing yourself.  Any words that follow the statement “I am” is your description of yourself.

Moreover, when we say, “I am [something],” it feels as if we really are that “something.” It feels as if our entire being is happy, or upset, or anxious, or any other emotion we say we are.

But is that really who we are?

Most readers of my weekly blog have eliminated at least one belief using the Lefkoe Belief Process (see http://recreateyourlife.com) where they discovered that they are not merely a “creation,” who has beliefs and feelings and who takes action, they also are the creator of that creation.

Although the creation you think you are is comprised of your beliefs and feelings and what you do, the consciousness you really are is whole and complete, for whom anything is possible and nothing is missing.

Thus, it actually is more accurate to say: My creation has feelings, but I am not my feelings.  My creation has beliefs, but I am not my beliefs.  My creation takes action, but I am not what I do.

This is not merely semantics

When you experience that you are your feelings, you are totally at the effect of them.  They seem to pervade your entire being and there seems to be no escape from them.

When you experience that you have feelings, but they are not who you are, you make a clear distinction between “you” and “your feelings.”  That enables you to get some perspective on the feelings and to place your SELF outside the feelings, so that you are no longer at their effect.

How do you do that?  There is a simple way to experience that you have feelings, but are not your feelings.  I’m not talking about an affirmation, where you try to convince yourself of something you don’t really believe.  I’m talking about experiencing the truth of the statement.

First, use the Who Am I Really? Process, which comes at the end of the LBP, several times.  You can get a link to the WAIR? Process at http://d3n3f57qjh51zc.cloudfront.net/who-am-i-really-new.mp3.

Then, when you start having some negative feelings and you notice that you are at the effect of them, remind yourself what you experienced in the WAIR? Process: “I am the creator of my life, not merely a creation.”  And then remind yourself of the experience you will already have had: “I have feelings; I am not my feelings.”

When you do that, notice how the intensity of the feeling diminishes and how the feeling starts to lose its grip on you.

Try it and let me know your experience.  I promise it will transform the way you experience your feelings.

Please leave your comments and questions here about today’s post.  I read all posts and answer as many as I can.

If you found this post useful, please tell your friends and followers by using the buttons at the top of this post.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one negative belief free.

For information about eliminating 23 of the most common limiting beliefs and conditionings—which cause eight of the most common problems in our lives including a lack of confidence—and get a separate video of the WAIR? Process, please check out: http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.

To get my blog posts as podcasts, sign up for the RSS feed above or look up “Morty Lefkoe” at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

copyright ©2011 Morty Lefkoe

It usually requires years of meditation (or an uncontrollable “bolt from the blue”) to experience a shift in one’s identity from “self” (one’s body, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behavior) to “SELF” (as consciousness, as a spiritual being).  Some workshops claim to be able to provide that experience in several concentrated days.  The Lefkoe Belief Process (LBP) assists people to make that shift in less than 20 minutes the first time and in less than 10 minutes thereafter.

For the first 10 years or so after I created the LBP in 1985, the only thing I was aware the Process did was eliminate beliefs.  And that was more than enough for me!  I eliminated scores of my own beliefs and made many fundamental changes in my life.  I also helped friends and referrals from friends eliminate beliefs and entire problems, and found a way to apply a variation of the Process in organizations to change employees’ behavior by changing their beliefs about their jobs.

Then one weekend I took a course in meditation that was presented by an associate of psychologist Lawrence LeShan.  By Sunday afternoon I realized that the LBP seemed to be getting people into a “spiritual” state similar to that of deep meditation.

Over the next few months I tried to determine if there really was a “state shift” after a belief was eliminated.  At some point I started asking clients several questions to see if they noticed feeling different and, if so, what was the difference.

Three of the questions included:

• Is there anything missing?
• What’s possible?
• What limitations do you have?

How is The Shift in Identity Experienced?

I discovered that most of my clients said they experienced that nothing was missing, anything was possible, and they had no limitations. When I asked them to describe this experience in their own words, I heard: powerful, serene, calm, peaceful, whole, complete, satisfied, empowered, nothing missing, no limitations and unlimited possibilities.

Asking them the same questions before doing the LBP got totally different responses.  Clients described various things they thought were missing from their lives; many said that a lot was possible to them, but certainly not anything; all described various limitations they experienced at the moment.

At some point I figured out what part of the process seemed to be most responsible for the shift.  After a belief had been eliminated, I asked the client:  “Is it real you created your beliefs.” The answer was usually, yes.  Then I asked: “Is it real now that your life has been consistent with your beliefs?”  The answer again was usually, yes.  Finally I asked: “If you create the beliefs that create your life, what does that make you?”  The answer usually was: The creator of my life (or words to that effect).

I realized at one point that the clients who experienced anything was possible and no limitations had already made a shift in identity.  Whenever people described limitations, I realized that the shift had not occurred.

To insure that every client experienced that shift in identity from merely a physical being to also a spiritual being, I added some material after the belief had been eliminated.  This material got clients to explicitly distinguish/create themselves as the creator of their lives so that they knew it, not as something to be understood or even experienced, but as something they experienced almost as natural knowing.  After I did that, almost everybody made the shift.

For many years I used the term “creator space” to describe the spiritual state the client got into and called this new material, the “creator space process.”  Because I wanted the name of the process to more accurately describe what the process is all about, at some point I renamed the process “Who am I Really?” (WAIR?).  You experience the answer to that question when you complete this short process.

The Lefkoe Belief Process Combines the Best of Psychotherapy and Spiritual Practices

At some point I realized that the LBP was unique in that it combined the best of psychotherapy and spiritual practices.

Most psychotherapists try to help clients deal with reality more effectively. In other words, most clients in therapy have a hard time dealing with some aspect of reality, and experience depression, anxiety, anger, procrastination, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, relationship problems, etc.  So the various forms of psychotherapy use different techniques to eliminate these problems so that clients are able to deal with reality more effectively and have happier lives.

Most spiritual practices, on the other hand, attempt to help people experience themselves as a spiritual being and realize that they are not merely physical bodies living in a material world.  The goal is to deeply experience that “We are spiritual beings having a physical human experience.”

So there are “two of us”: a “creation,” the human physical being, which is experienced as one’s body, thoughts, behavior, and feelings.  This physical being is born, lives a while, and dies. There is also a “creator”—the consciousness, energy, spiritual being—that is timeless, always was and always will be.  While most disciplines deal with one or the other, the LBP deals with both.

First, the LBP enables people to eliminate the beliefs that cause their thoughts, behavior and feelings.  As a result they are better able to deal with reality and they experience new possibilities as a result of not being limited in life by crippling beliefs.  Their “creation” changes and people experience the difference in their internal thoughts and feelings and they observe a difference in their behavior.

Second, the LBP enables people to distinguish and then experience themselves (not merely know intellectually) on a deep, profound level that they are not merely a creation, that who they really are is the creator of the creation.  It is a profoundly spiritual experience.

To have that experience yourself, eliminate one belief free at http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free.  The process there includes the WAIR? material at the end.

For information about eliminating 23 of the most common limiting beliefs and conditionings, which cause eight of the most common problems in our lives, and get a separate video of the WAIR? Process please check out: http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.

These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts.  Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

Copyright © 2011 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

Everyone knows that success in life is a function of your “intention.”  Right?

I just read an excellent blog post by Joe Vitale (http://blog.mrfire.com/why-i-gave-up-intentions) that challenges this point of view.  Joe’s perspective makes a lot of sense to me and, because New Year’s Resolutions are usually all about our intentions, I thought I would use my first blog post of the new year to take a fresh look at this topic.

Joe questions the value of intention

Joe makes this point: “Today I realize that most intentions are limitations. Intentions come from your ego and can actually limit what is possible for you to receive.”

He goes on to explain:

STAGE ONE:

In the first stage you are a victim. We’re all born into it and most of us stay there. With coaching or the right books or the right movies, you one day break free.

STAGE TWO:

In the next stage you realize you have more power than you ever thought before. In this stage intentions are fun and exciting and useful. You aim your life where you want it to go. It’s exhilarating to manifest things like new cars or a new house or anything else you can imagine.

But there’s a stage after that.

STAGE THREE:

In the third stage you realize you have choice but you don’t have control. You realize you don’t have all power. This is where you surrender. This is where you can receive inspiration from something greater than your ego awareness.

I was filmed for two more movies last week. One of them is all about letting go to inspiration.

For me, I want inspiration.

When it comes, that becomes my new intention.

But the intention comes from inspiration, not from limitation.

The intention comes from the Divine, not my pipsqueak ego.

In short, when I receive an inspiration to do something, it becomes my intention.

So I still believe in intentions, but not those of the ego, but those of the Divine.

A distinction between intention and inspiration

Joe made an important distinction between inspiration, which comes from who we really are (the “creator”) and intention, which comes from who we think we are (the ego, the “creation”).

Because our creation is pretty much run by our already-existing beliefs and conditionings, our intentions are not really freely chosen.   Our intentions are determined by our past, or, to be more precise, the meaning we gave past experiences.  In other words, our intentions are limited by our beliefs.  We can’t intend to achieve more than our beliefs will allow.

Inspirations, on the other hand, are created out of nothing. Inspirations don’t depend on anything and they are not limited by our beliefs.

If you were asked: What is the source of any goal you might have—and you explain why you have the goal, you probably have an intention that is a function of your beliefs.  If your answer is, “just because” or “why not” or “just because I said so,” you probably have an inspiration that was created independent of your beliefs.

As soon as I realized the power of The Lefkoe Method (TLM) about 25 years ago to make a profound difference in the world, I said to myself: I intend to spend the rest of my life using TLM to make a difference in as many lives as possible.  A worthwhile intention, isn’t it?

But when I first created this intention about 25 years ago it mattered to me.  I used it to define who I was.  It became my identity.  I had to do it.  It was a better way to spend my time than how most other people spent their time.  The world needed what I had to offer.

My intention became an inspiration

And then about 10 years ago there was a shift from: I need to do it, to: I choose to do it. And I would be okay if I didn’t do it. The world didn’t need me; it would be okay without me.

My intention had shifted to inspiration and it no longer defined who I was.  My ego was no longer involved.

I’ve actually been thinking about what to do with the rest of my life (I’m now 73 years old) during the past two weeks while I was on vacation in Hawaii with Shelly and my two daughters.

On the one hand I felt I could stay on vacation for the rest of my life. Either my associates or I have worked one-on-one with well over 13,000 clients and over 70,000 people have used an online and/or a DVD program to eliminate at least one belief.  Most of these people experienced a freedom that they had never experienced before.  One of my daughters pointed out that very few people in history had helped so many people.  I felt that was okay to stop.

On the other hand I felt excited about getting back to work. I was looking forward to implementing the many ideas I have for 2011, including a way to reach a few hundred thousand more people in 2011, leading a new occurring course, and  creating several new products.

After weighing each possibility, I choose to go back to work.  I don’t need to help people for ego reasons.  I am okay whether I continue to make The Lefkoe Method available in the world or not.  However, for me this is still the best game in town and I am interested in playing for at least one more year.

Look at your own intentions

Take a look at your intentions for 2011 and see if they are freely chosen or not.  Are they something you are choosing to do or something you need to do to be okay?

If you discover that the source of your intentions is your beliefs, get rid of any negative self-esteem beliefs so that you realize you are okay just the way you are and that you don’t need to do anything to be okay.  Make sure you get rid of any survival strategy beliefs, so that your sense of okayness is not dependent on anything outside yourself.  Do the Who Am I Really? Process and experience that you are the creator of your life, not a creation.

Allow yourself to ruminate about the question:  What do I want to do with my life, just because I want to do it—not because of what it means about me or because of what others will think?

When you discover what you choose to do, not what you need to do, what you would do even if no one else ever knew that you did it, you are probably in touch with divine inspiration, rather than ego-driven intention.  At that point the universe likely will support you in manifesting your inspiration in the world.

Please share below your thoughts and questions on living out of inspiration versus intention.

These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts.  Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one negative belief free.

To purchase a DVD program that I guarantee to help you significantly improve your confidence and also eliminate the major day-to-day problems that most people face, check out http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.

copyright © 2011 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

I wrote about three types of organizational change in my book, Re-create Your Life, many years ago. Let me draw from several passages in that book because the business applications of this distinction should make the personal applications I wrote about last week even clearer.

Organizations, as well as individuals, require all three types of change to be successful.

First order change in an organization consists of improving on what already is. It usually consists of finding ways to do things a little better, faster or easier. It results in incremental improvements consistent with the existing culture of the organization (which is a function of the organization’s beliefs).  You can make a lot of money doing this well.

Second order change consists of creating something totally new. It is characterized by behavior change that requires a new culture.  In other words, the desired behavior is inconsistent with the existing set of beliefs and requires a new set in order to open up the possibility for the desired new behaviors.

An example of this would be a company where certain employees see themselves as “Service Technicians,” for whom fixing and installing equipment is their “real” job and for whom taking care of customers is an imposition. Giving such employees information about the importance of taking care of customers would be useless.  Such information is inconsistent with their existing beliefs about themselves.  They would need to change those beliefs so that they saw themselves as “Customer Satisfiers,” at which point taking care of customers would be natural and normal behavior.

Whereas first order change is incremental and consists of improving what already is, second order change is more fundamental and consists of creating a new set of beliefs that make possible behavior that had been impossible before.

One way to distinguish between a second and third order change organization is that the former creates a new and better culture in which to operate; the latter creates a culture that recognizes that there is no ”right” culture for all times.

A third order organization is always operating from questions rather than answers, such as, What makes sense today?  It is an organization that is willing to question and change its beliefs and culture at all times.

As Eric Hoffer, the San Francisco longshoremen philosopher, once stated: “In a time of drastic change [such as the world is currently experiencing], it is the learners who inherit the future.  The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer remains.” (Emphasis added.)

Continuous improvement is, by definition, a process, not merely a state change.  Second order change substitutes one state for a better one.  An organization committed to continuous improvement requires third order change, which is a process, not merely a state change.

A third order organization would welcome change because change would be its biggest competitive advantage.  First and second order change organizations initially wouldn’t even see changes in the environment as they occurred.  Eventually they would acknowledge the environmental changes and try to deal with them.  They’d start with some first order change.  Eventually some of them might make second order changes.  By then what would have happened to the environment?  It would have changed even more.  Such organizations would never be dealing with the world as it is, moment by moment.  A third order organization would.

No limitations

When I lead workshops to help an organization create itself as a “third order” organization—in other words, an organization that creates third order change on a regular basis—I frequently ask participants: What limitations would a third order organization have?  The answer is always the same: “There wouldn’t be any limitations.”

This is exactly the same experience that individuals have when they distinguish themselves as the “creator” and not merely a “creation.”

Examples of second and third order organizations

It is relatively easy to identify a second order change organization. It usually is doing something totally different from what everyone else in its industry is doing.  Often it is something that everyone else says is impossible.

A good example of such a company is Southwest Airlines, founded by Herb Kelleher.  At a time when everyone in the airline business knew that you couldn’t possibly fly from point to point profitably and that the only way to run an airline was to fly in and out of major “hubs,” Kelleher decided that the conventional wisdom was wrong and created what has become the most profitable and successful airline in the U.S.

He challenged the existing industry beliefs and created a new set of beliefs about running an airline.

It is much harder to identify a third order change organization because it must be watched over time to see if one major challenge to conventional wisdom is followed by another.  In other words, because third order change consists of repeating second order change over and over as the environment demands, you need to observe a company over time to see if it makes fundamental change repeatedly.

One such company appears to be Amazon.  Jeff Bezos started by challenging the notion of retail as requiring physical locations and decided to sell retail over the Internet.  He started with offering a larger selection of books than even the super-sized bookstores with physical locations, such as Barnes and Noble and Border’s, at a substantial discount.

But his next second order change was even bigger than adding a lot more products, it was deciding that if a lot of people were interested in buying digital books, he would manufacture the Kindle, a digital book reader.  Whether he succeeds in the long run or whether the iPad or similar products defeat him is beside the point.  He and Amazon have observed the environment and continued to change as new opportunities arose.  They have created second order change at least twice, which probably makes it a third order change organization.

The relevance of change in business to personal life

How is the distinction between three types of business organizations relevant to personal growth and transformation?  I think the distinction between a second and third order organization is directly applicable to individuals: It is important to not only get rid of existing fears and barriers to action—so as to become a happier, more successful individual—but also to be constantly willing to grow, to learn, to change, to expand as your environment and experience require.

An individual who knows deep within that he is not his creation at any given moment, but the creator of any creation—in other words, someone who does not identify with his creation—would be willing to give up the creation he thinks he is at any given moment when he realizes it doesn’t serve him and create another one.

Second order change is reaching a better destination.  There is nothing at all wrong with that.  Run, don’t walk, to any opportunity to experience second order change.

A third order organization has a culture that holds there is no right way of operating at all times and under all circumstances, and is always open to change.

A third order individual distinguishes himself as the creator who creates his experience of life, minute by minute, always knowing that he is the creator of his creation, not any specific creation.

Please share below any comments you have on first, second, and third order change and my ideas on transformation in business.

These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts.  Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one limiting belief free.

To purchase a DVD program that I guarantee to help you significantly improve your confidence and also eliminate the major day-to-day problems that most people face, check out http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.

copyright © 2010 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

There are two fundamentally different ways in which we can experience ourselves.

First, the way most of us usually experience ourselves: as a creation—a separate entity distinct from other entities, whose survival is always at stake. Some people call this the ego.

Second, as the creator of that creation—as consciousness, as Self, as non-dual awareness, as that which has always existed and always will exist.

The creation is experienced as an entity that is either “good enough” or “not good enough.” The creator, consciousness, Self is not experienced as someThing; rather it is a state of consciousness in which one experiences oneself as whole and complete, with nothing missing. On the other hand, because the creation is something specific, there is always something it is not, in other words, there is always something missing.

What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment consists of distinguishing yourself and then experiencing (as distinct from understanding) that you already are the creator, Self, consciousness—not merely the creation—it’s just that most people haven’t experienced it yet.

Therefore, transformation or enlightenment is not a place to get to; you are already there. And transformation or enlightenment is nothing more than (continually) creating that experience for yourself.

Why we need self-esteem

If we are going to experience ourselves as a creation, we need a high level of self-esteem. Why? Because when we experience ourselves as someThing whose survival is always at stake, we need to believe I’m able to survive (good enough, important, capable), and worthy of surviving. (Nathaniel Branden was the first person I know to point this out.) And a high level of self-esteem is more conducive to our survival than a low level of self-esteem.

But when you distinguish yourself as the creator of the creation (which you can easily experience with the “Who Am I Really?” Process), then a paradox occurs: you no longer need a high level of self-esteem (because your survival is no longer in question) and you experience yourself as whole and complete, as okay just the way you are, with nothing missing, anything is possible, and no limitations—which “feels like” a high level of self-esteem.

Although it is possible to change the creation (by eliminating our beliefs about ourselves, which changes how we act and feel)—the very fact of experiencing ourselves as a creation will necessarily result in experiencing something missing, some limitations, and, as the Buddha said: some degree of suffering.

Some suffering seems to be inherent in the experience of ourselves as a creation, an entity whose survival is always at stake. Let me explain why.

If some things are good for us (conducive to our survival), then other things are bad for us (a threat to our survival). And when we encounter anything that we consider to be a threat to our survival, we feel anxiety and suffer. Depending on our beliefs and who we think are, we can be threatened by people who are angry at us, not being liked by people, making mistakes, not reaching our goals—in other words, by anything that we consider “bad.”

In other words, when anything we consider ourselves to be (a good parent, a hard worker, a sexy person) is threatened, we feel anxiety because we think who we are is in danger of extinction.

When we experience ourselves as a creation with a low level of self-esteem, our lives become about acquiring self-esteem. We create survival strategies—which are substitutes for self-esteem—that run our lives, such as having people think well of us, taking care of others, or doing things perfectly. We think these survival strategies will make us good enough or important. Unfortunately, it’s an endless quest because they never really work, although they can ameliorate anxiety for the moment.

The Lefkoe Method has two purposes

This is why The Lefkoe Method has a two-fold purpose: to help you change your creation (for example, from not good enough to good enough) … and also to facilitate you to distinguish and then experience yourself as the creator of the creation.

As long as you have human form you probably will experience that that form’s survival is always at stake. But it is possible to transcend that experience and distinguish yourself as the creator at any time. In that transcendent state, you experience that you are the space in which reality and time show up, that you always were and always will be, and that survival is never an issue.

So although it is possible to minimize suffering by changing the creation (eliminating beliefs that lead to dysfunctional behavior and feelings), as long as you experience yourself as a creation, suffering is always lurking just around the corner. The best way to relieve suffering is to create yourself as the creator, as Self, as non-dual awareness.

An alternative method

There seems to be a second method that I’ve been exploring recently: to detach oneself from the dualistic world in which we live—to dissolve the meaning we impose on meaningless reality—and face reality stripped bare of all meaning. When the meaning is gone, anxiety and suffering will be gone too.

Suffering and any other unpleasant emotion are the result of adding the meaning: “bad for me” (as distinct from good for me)—to a meaningless event. That meaning causes the suffering. Human beings are always creating meaning because we need to know: good or bad for my survival.

So there appears to be two ways to relieve suffering: to experience yourself as the creator—as distinct from the creation, or to act very un-creation-like and dissolve all the meaning from events, to live totally in the moment. The Lefkoe Occurring Process was designed to do just that.

Please share any comments you have on these thoughts on enlightenment and how to relieve suffering.

These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts. Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one limiting belief free.

To purchase DVD programs that we guarantee to eliminate eight of the most common daily problems people face, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/store.

copyright ©2010 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

Most of my blog posts present material I have a clear point of view on, such as how beliefs are formed, how they can be eliminated and how they determine our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.  I don’t hold these as “the truth,” but as effective and useful “a truths.” A few posts—like the ones I wrote last December on occurring—present some half-formed ideas I am thinking about and trying to work through.  This post on some thoughts on manifesting is like that.

Let me start with two ideas I’ve been fascinated about for a few years.

Here is the first idea:

If you asked someone, “Do things exist?” the response would probably be, “Of course things exist! The world is full of things. Doesn’t everyone know that there is physical stuff out there—that reality is tangible and real?”

But what allows any thing—a hand, a chair, or any other object—to exist? One way to answer is to imagine a specific thing—say, a hand. What if the hand expands and keeps expanding until there is nothing in the universe except the hand. What would happen to it? … Really try to imagine this. … You wouldn’t see the hand anymore. But why?

It would disappear because there would be nothing in the universe that was not the hand. This thought exercise illuminates a very basic concept about reality: We live in a dualistic universe. In order for any thing to exist, there must also be not that thing.

Consider this for a moment. Can you see that any physical object is bounded by “not that object”? If an object did not have any borders— that is, if it wasn’t surrounded by “not that object”—it couldn’t be distinguished from everything else. In other words, it wouldn’t exist.

The same principle also applies to nonmaterial concepts. Love and hate, peace and war, strong and weak, beautiful and ugly—these only exist and have unique attributes because they have been distinguished from each other. For example, the state of war is distinguished from peace by the presence of armed conflict. When there is no armed conflict there is peace. But if armed conflict existed throughout the world all the time, and if the alternative (peace) was unimaginable, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish war from any other state. War, as a condition distinct from peace, couldn’t exist.

Now imagine the universe without any distinctions. It’s just an undifferentiated whole. Can you see that there would be nothing? That’s because in order for anything to exist, it must be distinguished from everything else. If no distinction is made between a specific thing and everything else, there is only an undifferentiated everything—which is another way of saying nothing.

Everything, without any distinctions, is the same as nothing.

Physicist Fred Allen Wolf once said that “the world is only a potential and not present without you or me to observe it.” I would suggest that what physical reality really requires is consciousness to make distinctions.

In making distinctions, we use our sensory apparatus (the five senses) as well as our perceptual framework (language, culture, paradigms, and individual beliefs). But the world isn’t really the way you perceive it. It isn’t any way until you perceive it that way—that is, until you distinguish it that way. In fact, you don’t even sense what’s “out there:’ because there’s nothing out there to be sensed. (Nothing, as we’ve seen, however, is the potential for everything to be distinguished.)

An example comes from a Time magazine cover story on human consciousness.

“A baby born with cataracts—an unusual but not unheard-of condition—and left untreated for as little as six months becomes permanently and irrevocably blind. If a sixty-year-old develops cataracts, an operation can restore full sight. The distinctions most of us make unconsciously and at a glance—foreground vs. background, moving vs. stationary, vertical vs. horizontal, and dozens more—are concepts that the brain has learned. It literally has to wire itself, with neurons growing out to touch and communicate with one another in an ever more sophisticated network of connections. And if those connections are not repeatedly stimulated in the first few months of life, when the brain is still in its formative period, they atrophy and die.”  (Emphasis added.)

In other words, moving and stationary or vertical and horizontal are not events “out there”: Rather they are “concepts that the brain has learned” (or distinguished) as a result of having a specific sensory apparatus, without which they couldn’t be distinguished. That means they literally wouldn’t exist. (This is only a brief summary of an idea that’s relevant to this post.  It could be developed further into a longer post or even a chapter in a book.)

Here is the second idea (this is actually a part of the Who Am I Really? Process).

There are three ways to “know” something:

First, by understanding it.  This is conceptual and involves language and explanation. You can understand that you create your life when someone explains it to you or when you read about it.

Second, by experiencing it.  You know you are the creator of your life in a totally different way when you experience it.

Third, by bringing something into existence by  creating/distinguishing it. When you distinguish yourself as the creator of your life as distinct from the creation, you know you are the creator of your life in this third way, which cannot even be described.

The following are some of my recent thoughts that appear to be related to the two ideas presented above, but I’m not sure yet how to tie all this together.  Any suggestions?

Understanding something as true or even experiencing it as true doesn’t make it manifest.  These two ways of knowing are ways of knowing what already exists. The third way to know reality—knowing by distinguishing/creating—brings what has been distinguished into existence.

Making a distinction is sufficient to bring something into existence as an idea. But it needs to be experienced and “brought into existence” for the distinction to actually exist in reality.  The fact that a distinction does not show up in physical reality immediately does not mean we haven’t created it.  What we’ve distinguished really does exist (as an idea); it just isn’t in physical form yet.

Wants and desires are a function of already-existing beliefs.  They arise from already-existing beliefs.  You look at what exists and want it to be the same or different based on your values, which are a type of belief.  The beliefs are from the past and the wants/desires live in the future.  You’re either satisfied with what already is or dissatisfied with what already is.  Neither generates or creates.  Creation takes place in the present.  You make a distinction and bring something into existence as a thought/an idea.

The very act of making a distinction brings it into existence mentally, that thought will then manifest when we act in the present consistently with it.

Behavior can exist in three totally different realms: (1) figuring out how to solve existing problems to reach a goal (focusing on the past), (2) creating a strategy to reach a goal (focusing on the future), or (3) taking advantage of opportunities as they arise consistently with a future that’s already been created/distinguished in the mind (focusing on the present).

How am I using these ideas in my own life? I created/distinguished 5 million people using The Lefkoe Method to eliminate at least one limiting belief by December 31, 2012. At the moment, I have no idea how to manifest 5 million users in just two and a half years.  I am doing whatever seems appropriate to manifest that “creation” as the opportunities arise: writing weekly blog posts, writing guest posts, creating a new course to teach people how to dissolve how the world occurs for us, supporting research on the effectiveness of The Lefkoe Method—especially on stress, joint venture mailings, using Twitter and Facebook, etc.  I expect that additional opportunities to reach my goal will emerge over time and what currently exists only in my mind will manifest in the world when the time comes.

Do you have any suggestions or comments on these thoughts on manifesting?

These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts.  Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one limiting belief free.

To purchase DVD programs that we guarantee to eliminate eight of the most common daily problems people face, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/store.

copyright ©2010 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

“The Lefkoe Method is very effective at eliminating negative beliefs.  But why don’t you replace them with positive beliefs?”

This is a very common question so I decided to devote this week’s post to answering it.

For many years we did attempt to “install” positive beliefs—the opposite of the “negative” belief that was eliminated—for example, I am good enough for I’m not good enough and relationships do work for relationships don’t work.

Although the new belief felt true at the moment for most clients, it usually didn’t feel true when we checked a week or two later.  In other words, despite using several different methods to install the new beliefs, it usually didn’t work.

Is it Possible to Consciously Create New Beliefs?

Here’s why I think it is very difficult to have someone consciously create a new belief and then really believe it.  A belief is the meaning we have given meaningless events in reality.  When we do that it seems (for a visual person) that we can actually see that meaning in the world.  It is the truth.  You aren’t trying to convince yourself that the meaning is true; it is true for you.  For a kinesthetic person, once you give a meaning to events, those events make you feel that meaning every time the events occur.  Again, you aren’t trying to feel something; you can’t help but feel it.

This is the automatic process that occurs when you initially create a belief  unconsciously.  But it is very different when you consciously say the words: I am good enough or relationships do work—and hope that you will really believe the words you’ve uttered.  You are saying it more like an affirmation, as something you want to be true, rather than as something you think you can see in the world (which would mean it must be true). Even looking at recent events that could validate the new belief wasn’t consistently effective.

We also tried having clients create the new positive belief after they had gotten into the “creator” space (after using the Who Am I Really? Process).  I never kept records, but I’m not sure that this worked much better.

You Don’t Need “Positive” Beliefs

I never looked for additional techniques that might enable people to get the new beliefs to “stick” because I decided early on that it was more important for people to realize they were the creator of their lives, than they were a “healthier or better creation.”

Let me explain.  I commonly use the words “negative” and “limiting” as descriptions of certain beliefs.  In fact, however, beliefs aren’t negative or positive they are neutral.  They result in certain feelings and behavior.  If you like what they produce, you could say the beliefs are “positive,” but only because you arbitrarily like their manifestation.

Moreover, all beliefs are limiting by their very nature.  You are what you believe you are (for you) and anything else is absolutely not true (not possible). Your beliefs about people and life also create boxes; what’s outside the boxes literally does not exist for you.  (If you believe relationships always work or never work, you will interpret all relationships through that filter and no matter what you see couples do or don’t do, you will interpret it consistently with your belief.  For you, relationships inconsistent with your beliefs cannot exist.)

Live As The Creator, Not a “Better” Creation

I concluded that it was more important to live as the creator of your life (as the sculptor) rather than as any specific creation (as a specific piece of sculpture).  In the altered state of consciousness produced by the Who Am I Really? Process, you have no limitations and anything is possible.

So even if it were possible to install a new belief, I don’t think it would be particularly useful.  If you have used the WAIR? Process (which is attached at the end of the free belief-elimination processes and is available in all of our belief-elimination programs), you know that it feels as if anything is possible and that you have no limitations.  Next time you get in that space, ask yourself if the opposite of the beliefs you’ve eliminated feels true for you.  In that space they will, whether you experience them as true in day-to-day life or not.  In that altered state, you feel whole, complete, and okay just the way you are.  You feel good enough, important, and loveable.

My advice to those of you who are interested in forming positive beliefs, use the WAIR? Process daily.  Get into an altered state every day.  And it won’t be long before it gets easy to have that experience of yourself even when you aren’t using the WAIR? Process.  Wouldn’t you rather experience yourself as the creator of your life than as a “better” creation?

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one limiting belief free.

Please feel free to share my blog posts with anyone you think might be interested (as long as you tell people where they came from) and to provide a link from your own website or blog.

To purchase DVD programs that we guarantee to eliminate eight of the most common daily problems people face, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/store.

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mortylefkoe and join our fan page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LefkoeInstitute) to get my latest insights on the role of beliefs in our lives.

Finally, to receive notice of new blog posts, please fill out the following form.

Copyright © 2010 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

Often when I start to explain to someone how the Lefkoe Belief Process (LBP) works, they quickly respond, “Oh, you’re just doing Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)!”

Although the LBP is similar in some ways to CBT (of which there are several variations), there are more things that are different than the same.  (Because I am not trained in CBT, I have no first hand knowledge of it.  But several people who are certified in CBT and who also are familiar with the LBP have helped me make the following distinctions between the two.)

First, some versions of CBT attempt to change beliefs by challenging the validity of the evidence that the client uses to support them. However, the “evidence” that people offer for a belief usually is not the actual reason they believe it. The evidence people offer usually consists of recent observations that appear to substantiate the belief. The real source of one’s fundamental beliefs, the LBP contends, is interpretations of circumstances earlier in life. Core beliefs about one’s self and life are usually formed in childhood. After a belief has been formed, however, one acts consistently with it, thereby producing “current evidence” for the already-existing belief.

Because the evidence one presents to validate one’s beliefs usually is a consequence of the beliefs, not its source, challenging the validity of that evidence may not be the most effective way to eliminate beliefs.

Second, CBT tries to show clients that their thinking is illogical, broad generalizations, self-defeating, etc.  The LBP makes no attempt to get clients to see that a current belief is wrong or not true, to see it as illogical, to accept that it does not make sense, or to reject it as self-defeating. The LBP actually validates people for forming the belief earlier in life by assisting them to realize that most people probably would have made a similar interpretation under similar circumstances. It insures that people realize that their belief actually is one valid interpretation of their earlier circumstances.

CBT attempts to get clients to realize their beliefs don’t make sense and are self-defeating; therefore they should give them up. The LBP assists people to eliminate beliefs by getting them to realize that they form beliefs by giving/attributing meaning to events that have no inherent meaning, after which they think they can “see” that meaning inherent in the events.  When clients realize they really can’t see the belief (the meaning) in the world, that it exists and has only ever existed in their minds, and when they realize the feeling of the belief was not caused by something outside of them, but by the meaning they gave the events, the belief is eradicated.

A third element that distinguishes the LBP from some versions of CBT is that CBT tries to get the client to agree to act consistently with an alternative belief to test its possible validity. In other works, homework is an integral part of CBT; there is nothing a client has to do between sessions with LBP. Because the current belief is totally eliminated by using the LBP during the session, one has no need to try to change one’s behavior when one goes back “into life”; one’s behavior changes naturally and effortlessly once the belief is gone.

A fourth distinction between the LBP and many cognitive approaches is that the latter frequently give clients tools that they are expected to use to think more rationally in order to act more rationally in the face of strong emotions such as fear, anger, depression, hostility, etc. The LBP is used by a facilitator (either a live person, or an on-line or DVD program) to assist clients to eliminate the beliefs that cause such emotions. When these emotions stop after the beliefs (and conditionings) that give rise to them are eliminated, clients no longer need a tool to deal with them more effectively.

Fifth, The Lefkoe Method includes other processes other than the LBP when appropriate.  For example, the Lefkoe Stimulus Process facilitates de-conditioning the stimuli for negative emotions, which has nothing to do with beliefs or illogical thoughts. In order to get rid of the fear of public speaking, for instance, one has to extinguish the conditioned stimuli that have become associated with fear, such as facing criticism, or feeling that one is not meeting expectations, that one is being judged, or that one is being rejected.

And in last week’s blog post I described the Lefkoe Sense Process and the Lefkoe Expectation Process, which de-condition negative senses and expectations.  To the best of my knowledge CBT does not deal with conditioning directly.

Finally, there is no explicit spiritual element in CBT.  As far as I am concerned, the “Who Am I Really?” Process, which helps you shift your identity from an ego—the sum total of your beliefs and their manifestation—to the source of the ego, is a crucial element of the LBP and is as important as getting rid of beliefs.

The Lefkoe Method, which includes the LBP and several other processes, accomplishes two distinct things with clients:

1. It helps people make fundamental changes in who they think they are, namely, their beliefs and the way those beliefs manifest in their behavior and feelings, by eliminating beliefs and de-conditioning stimuli, senses, and expectations.
2. It helps people make a distinction between themselves as the sum total of their beliefs and how they manifest, and themselves as the creator of those beliefs, and, therefore, of their lives.

Because CBT is the most researched psychotherapy (and is considered the “gold standard”), I am excited to announce a research study we are about to start.  Conducted by a major university, the study will compare the results of using our Natural Confidence DVD program, which contains 23 self-esteem beliefs and conditionings, with 10 hours of private CBT sessions.  The study will measure  changes in self-esteem, self-confidence, and stress.  Stay tuned for the results.

Thanks for reading my blog. I really appreciate your comments and questions. Please feel free to share my blog posts with anyone you think might be interested as long as you tell people where they came from.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one limiting belief free.

To purchase DVD programs that we guarantee to eliminate eight of the most common daily problems people face, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/store.

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mortylefkoe and join our fan page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LefkoeInstitute) to get my latest insights on the role of beliefs in our lives.

Finally, to receive notice of new blog posts, please fill out the following form.

Copyright © 2009 Morty Lefkoe

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

To experience a shift in one’s identity from “self” (one’s body, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behavior) to “SELF” (as consciousness, as a spiritual being) typically requires years of meditation.  Some workshops claim to be able to provide that experience in several concentrated days.  The Lefkoe Belief Process (LBP) assists people to make that shift in less than 30 minutes the first time and in less than 10 minutes thereafter.

For the first 10 years or so after I created the LBP in 1985, the only thing I was aware the Process did was eliminate beliefs.  And that was more than enough for me!  I eliminated scores of my own beliefs and made many fundamental changes in my life.  I also helped friends and referrals from friends eliminate beliefs and entire problems, and found a way to apply a variation of the Process in organizations to change employees’ behavior by changing their beliefs about their jobs.

Then one weekend I took a course in meditation that was presented by an associate of psychologist Lawrence LeShan.  By Sunday afternoon I realized that the LBP seemed to be getting people into a “spiritual” state similar to that of deep meditation.

Over the next few months I tried to determine if there really was a “state shift” after a belief was eliminated.  At some point I started asking clients several questions to see if they noticed feeling different and, if so, what was the difference.

Three of the questions included:

•    Is there anything missing?
•    What’s possible?
•    What limitations do you have?

How is The Shift in Identity Experienced?

I discovered that most of my clients said they experienced that nothing was missing, anything was possible, and they had no limitations. When I asked them to describe this experience in their own words, I heard: powerful, serene, calm, peaceful, whole, complete, satisfied, empowered, nothing missing, no limitations and unlimited possibilities.

Asking them the same questions before doing the LBP got totally different responses.  Clients described various things they thought were missing from their lives; many said that a lot was possible to them, but certainly not anything; all described various limitations they experienced at the moment.

At some point I figured out what part of the process seemed to be most responsible for the shift.  After a belief had been eliminated, I asked the client:  “Is it real you created your beliefs.” The answer was usually, yes.  Then I asked: “Is it real now that your life has been consistent with your beliefs?”  The answer again was usually, yes.  Finally I asked: “If you create the beliefs that create your life, what does that make you?”  The answer usually was: The creator of my life (or words to that effect).

I realized at one point that the clients who experienced anything  was possible and no limitations had already made a shift in identity.  Whenever people described limitations, I realized that the shift had not occurred.

To insure that every client experienced that shift in identity from merely a physical being to also a spiritual being, I added some material after the belief had been eliminated.  This material got clients to explicitly distinguish/create themselves as the creator of their lives so that they knew it, not as something to be understood or even experienced, but as something they experienced almost as natural knowing.  After I did that, almost everybody made the shift.

For many years I used the term “creator space” to describe the spiritual state the client got into and called this new material, the “creator space process.”  Because I wanted the name of the process to more accurately describe what the process is all about, last year I renamed the process “Who am I Really?” (WAIR?).  You experience the answer to that question when you complete this short process.

The Lefkoe Belief Process Combines the Best of
Psychotherapy and Spiritual Practices

At some point I realized that the LBP was unique in that it combined the best of psychotherapy and spiritual practices.

Most psychotherapists try to help clients deal with reality more effectively. In other words, most clients in therapy have a hard time dealing with some aspect of reality, and experience depression, anxiety, anger, procrastination, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, relationship problems, etc.  So the various forms of psychotherapy use different techniques to eliminate these problems so that clients are able to deal with reality more effectively and have happier lives.

Most spiritual practices, on the other hand, attempt to help people experience themselves as a spiritual being and realize that they are not merely physical bodies living in a material world.  The goal is to deeply experience that “We are spiritual beings having a physical human experience.”

So there are “two of us”: First, a “creation,” the human physical being, which is experienced as one’s body, thoughts, behavior, and feelings.  This physical is born, lives a while, and dies. And second, a “creator”—the consciousness, energy, spiritual being—that “creates” the creation.  This spiritual being is timeless, always was and always will be.  While most disciplines deal with one or the other, the LBP deals with both.

First, the LBP enables people to eliminate the beliefs that cause their thoughts, behavior and feelings.  As a result they are better able to deal with reality and they experience new possibilities as a result of not being limited in life by crippling beliefs.  Their “creation” changes and people experience the difference in their internal thoughts and feelings and they observe a difference in their behavior.

Second, the LBP enables people to distinguish and then experience themselves (not merely know intellectually) on a deep, profound level that they are not merely a creation, that who they really are is the creator of the creation.  It is a profoundly spiritual experience.

To have that experience yourself, eliminate one belief free at http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free.  The process there includes the WAIR? material at the end.

To purchase an on-line interactive program where you can eliminate 19 beliefs and get a separate video of WAIR?, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/sales.html.

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mortylefkoe and join our fan page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/The-Lefkoe-Institute/54781675766?ref=ts) to get my latest insights on the role of beliefs in our lives.

Thanks for reading my blog. I really would appreciate your comments and questions.

This post assumes you already have eliminated at least one belief using the Lefkoe Belief Process and used the “Who am I Really?” Process to experience yourself as the creator of your life.  If you haven’t visit www.recreateyourlife.com/free first so you can eliminate a belief and have that experience.

In my last post I suggested one technique for getting rid of upsets and suffering in your life.  Here’s another way to achieve that result.

When you say: “I am upset,” who is the “I” that is upset? …  Please take a minute and answer the question. …

Remember, you eliminated a belief that you had thought was who you are.  You had said at the start of the Lefkoe Belief Process: I’m not good enough (or important or anything else).  Then after the belief was gone I asked you: “Are you still here?”  And you answered, “Yes, I am still here.”

So if who you think you are disappears and you are still here, you can’t be who you think you are.  You can’t be your beliefs (I am …) and the feelings and actions that stem from the beliefs.

“How did mom and dad’s interactions with you get translated into beliefs in your mind?” I asked.

You answered, “I put them there when I gave a meaning to my parents’ meaningless comments and actions.”

“So,” I asked, “do you get that who you really is the creator of your beliefs, not the sum total of your beliefs?”

You replied, “Yes.”

And “consciousness” is the word I suggested you use to describe who you really are.

As soon as you get, not merely as a concept but deep down, that you aren’t your beliefs, feelings or behavior—you are the creator of them all—you will be able to observe your “upset” and not be run by it.

Who you think you are can suffer; who you really are can’t.

As abstract ideas to be thought about and agreed or disagreed with, what I’ve just written has no power to relieve your upsets and suffering.  When experienced, it has such power.

If what I’ve written is merely an interesting theory and has no real meaning for you, do the “Who am I Really?” Process at the end of whichever free belief you eliminated.  If you purchased the full program, there is a link just for that process on the upper left side of your screen when you log in to the program.  (http://www.recreateyourlife.com)

Doing that process will quickly and easily help you shift your identity from a creation to the creator of the creation (consciousness).  In that space, there is no upset and no suffering.

After you use the WAIR? process to shift your identity, you will be experiencing yourself as the creator of your life.  At that point state out loud and allow yourself to fully experience:

I have beliefs, I am not my beliefs.
I have thoughts, I am not my thoughts.
I have feelings, I am not my feelings.
I do things, I am not my actions.
I am the consciousness that creates and then observes my beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Understood as concepts, these words are useless.  Experienced deeply while in the “creator” state, these words will dissolve any upset or suffering you had been feeling.

You may not always be able to affect what happens to you.  You can always determine how you feel about what happens to you.

Thanks for reading my blog. Comments and questions are welcomed.

To eliminate a limiting core belief free, please visit http://recreateyourlife.com/free.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mortylefkoe and join our fan page on Facebook (The Lefkoe Institute) to get our latest insights on the role of beliefs in our lives.