Monday, October 18, 2004 (Private/Phone)

Participants: Mary (Michael) and Frank (Ulra)

(Elias’ arrival time is 10 seconds.)

ELIAS: Good morning!

FRANK: Good morning to you, too! It’s been a while since we talked, and I’m sort of eager for this session.

ELIAS: Ha ha! And what shall we discuss?

FRANK: Well, one of the big things we are going to talk about today is perception.

ELIAS: Ah.

FRANK: Remember? We talked about that the last time. But let me start as usual with a couple of dreams here...

ELIAS: Very well.

FRANK: ...and see what you have to say about them. I had a dream where I was playing baseball. I was on first base, and there was a ball hit into the outfield. I ran around second base, and I tried to go to third. As soon as I was too far past second base to go back, I knew that they were going to get me out at third base. The outfielder threw the ball to third, and it was caught by a kid that I had played baseball with when I was very young. He tagged me out.

My interpretation is that this is a message that I am trying to push or stretch my energy to achieve whatever it is that I want to achieve, that this is counterproductive, and that the reason that I had this image of this person I knew when I was just a kid is that this sort of signal has been going on for a long time.

ELIAS: Correct.

FRANK: Is that accurate or is there is more to it?

ELIAS: Yes, that is an accurate interpretation, and it also is symbolization of competition. In pushing your energy and striving, you are generating competition rather than paying attention and allowing your own free flow.

FRANK: Competition with whom or what?

ELIAS: Competition in general, not merely with other individuals but also with yourself.

FRANK: Can you get me an example of that?

ELIAS: Competing with yourself to push yourself to be better or swifter or stronger, rather than allowing for a free flow of energy. It is a competition of striving in association with the ideal you.

FRANK: When I have a dream like this, the purpose is what? To sort of make me aware of this so that I can have the option at least to change this approach?

ELIAS: Yes. To offer yourself information, thereby allowing you to evaluate what you are actually doing and allow you to chose rather than merely generating automatic responses.

FRANK: Any more to this?

ELIAS: No.

FRANK: Then I had another one. When I woke up, I realized or I thought that I had this dream several times in the past, and this was the first time I remembered it. After I tell you about it you can confirm whether or not that’s true.

In this dream, there was some person, I don’t know if was my wife or one of my daughters, but some female person who had killed someone. But somehow in the dream I felt that I was really responsible, and I was afraid that whoever did it would be caught. I was also afraid that that would lead to me being caught. Somehow it seemed significant when I did remember it.

My interpretation of that was that I feel guilty about some change I want to make in my life. I guess my questions are one, is my interpretation correct? And number two, did I in fact have this dream several times and is the first time I remembered it or not?

ELIAS: Yes, you have incorporated this dream imagery previously, and your interpretation is partially correct. The other individual is you. You are merely imaging the other individual as different from yourself for it represents a different aspect of yourself or different qualities of yourself. Your interpretation concerning change and your feeling of uneasiness or even guilt concerning that is partially correct. The other aspect of this dream, the reason that you feel that it is significant, is that it is a representation of other qualities of yourself, other aspects of yourself that you may not necessarily be entirely familiar with yet, and that those other aspects of yourself or qualities of yourself incorporate power.

Now; they are not necessarily dangerous, but the symbolization in this dream imagery is that there is a fear that there are other qualities of yourself that you are unaware of that may influence you to generate certain actions or choices or changes that would be unfamiliar to you and that you perceive in an uncomfortable manner. This is not necessarily correct, but it is understandable, for many times there is a perceived threat concerning unfamiliar aspects of self, and there is, generally speaking, an association which is generated in regard to strongly expressed beliefs concerning subconscious, that there are elements of the self that may be choosing for you without your agreement.

Now; as I have expressed many times, that is not true, but nevertheless it is a real perception, and therefore, it may generate a real reality regardless of whether it is true or not. In this, as you continue to widen your awareness, you unveil more of yourself to yourself. Generally speaking, that is perceived to be a positive, but in association with power that may not necessarily be initially perceived as positive. For, power is generally assessed as somewhat good, but also potentially dangerous if not controlled.

FRANK: You mean by me personally?

ELIAS: Yes. Other individuals incorporate similar associations. This is, in actuality, a mass expression; therefore, it is not unusual. But as you, as an individual, continue widening your awareness, you become more aware of not merely your abilities but of your power also and of your freedom. The more you are aware of your freedom, the more you are aware that you can actually create whatever you choose, even if it is a creation that you are not necessarily comfortable with.

Also, there is an underlying association that with power comes responsibility. Therefore, that influences the feeling of guilt, for there is more of an association with responsibility in what you may view as the traditional definition of responsibility, not the responsibility of self that we discuss.

FRANK: When you talk about power here, really power is just one thing, I think, and that is my ability to create whatever I choose to create.

ELIAS: Correct, and your awareness of it.

FRANK: That’s it. There’s nothing else.

ELIAS: Yes.

FRANK: I just wanted to make sure I cleared that up. Now, did this dream have something to do with the fact that even since our last session I had decided that in this session we were going to talk about perception?

ELIAS: Clarify your question.

FRANK: Getting a handle on this whole concept that you’ve discussed of perception being the driver mechanism through which we can, in fact, control or consciously control everything that happens. In other words, it’s the ultimate expression of power.

ELIAS: Yes.

FRANK: It’s been on my mind, as I said last time, to kinda pin you down of this to try to get a better handle and understanding of it in a real practical way, which now seems to directly relate to what you are talking about in the dream.

ELIAS: Yes, you are correct.

FRANK: So is that preparing me for this?

ELIAS: In a matter of speaking. What is your confusion concerning perception?

FRANK: As if you don’t know! (Elias laughs) What is my confusion? As I said last time, to me, at least, you have been pretty vague about it. I think I used the term “intentionally vague.” You’ve discussed perception as a mechanism, which to me just doesn’t mean much of anything. I don’t know what that means, a mechanism. What I’m after is to get a very practical understanding of how I can shift my perception to be able to consciously create things, as opposed to... I mean, intellectually I understand I create everything, but I don’t seem to have the ability to decide I want to create “X” and all of a sudden create “X.”

ELIAS: I am understanding. I incorporate the term “mechanism” for that implies movement or action. Perception is an action, and in this, it is that filter, so to speak, of how you interpret elements of your world or any of your reality. It is the manner in which you interpret your reality, and that can change and does change with different information as you offer yourself different input or different information.

Perception is a type of invisible computer, figuratively speaking. Information is inputted into this invisible computer — which is not your brain — and it is evaluated and interpreted and thusly projected in energy, and that creates the projection of whatever is within your reality.

Or it may be figuratively viewed as an invisible film projector, and this invisible film projector, as the film is fed through it — the film being information — it projects images outwardly. You also evaluate those images in association with your beliefs, and you generate determinations in association with what is or what is manifest or what is expressed within your reality. Those evaluations are generally associated with beliefs of duplicity, which are not bad, and are also, as I have expressed many times, not being eliminated. But that generates the action of your identification of your preferences and your opinions, which determine your guidelines for how you express yourself and what you like and what you dislike, what you prefer, what you do not prefer, what you want and what you do not want.

I am aware that most individuals generate the association that perception is a function of your brain, and that it is a function of the thinking aspect of your brain; in actuality, it is not. There are many aspects of yourself that are not actually directly associated with the physical functioning of your physical body. They may influence functions of your physical body, but they are not actually a physical mechanism.

You think what generates thinking are specific functions and firings within your physical brain. That is an action that occurs and is influenced by the aspect of you that thinks, but that aspect of you that thinks, although it influences and affects the physical brain, is NOT the physical brain, just as perception is not an actual physical attachment, so to speak, with your physical body. It is a movement of energy. It is a processor of energy, and it is what generates the actual projection of reality.

Now; in this, as you offer different information to yourself, you alter what the perception outputs. As you offer yourself different input, you create different output. You have generated this action considerably. Throughout the time framework that you and I have been engaging conversations, you have generated considerable alterations of what you project through perception, in difference to what you have generated prior. For you have offered yourself different information, and that influences what you project outwardly, for it influences what perception is processing. Also, as you offer yourself information through your experiences in different manners with individuals that you interact with and situations that you generate, as you continue to widen your awareness, you are also affecting perception and altering it. Therefore, you create differently.

Now; remember, beliefs are continuously influencing of perception, for that is a continuous input that is directly, in a manner of speaking, filtered into that film that is moving through the projector.

Or if you are associating this invisible action of perception as an invisible computer that you generate...

FRANK: I like that analogy better.

ELIAS: ...your beliefs are what you would term to be permanent chips, or in your terms now, hardware that influences the functioning of the computer. But if we are speaking in terms of computers, you also offer yourself many different programs and software that influence the influences of the hardware, in a manner of speaking. The hardware does not change, and is installed as a working mechanism that without, the computer would not function. You may manipulate how it functions by incorporating different software, which is different information, and you incorporate the ability to continue to add as much or as little software as you chose. There is no limit to what your invisible computer may accommodate in additional information. Each time you input new software or new information into your invisible computer, it generates different images, even in association with familiar images.

In your invisible computer, you may create an image of another individual, as an example, and you may continue to generate that same image for an extended time framework. But as you input new software or new information, that image may be colored differently, and it may change. It may incorporate some similarities that it incorporated previously, but it may also now incorporate additional alterations, and therefore, it is viewed quite differently.

Such as, you may incorporate the physical image of your partner or your children or your business partner, and that may continue to be viewed quite similarly physically as it has been previously. But you may also view those individuals differently — not physically, but in other manners. That is the function of perception. You may be viewing an individual, as an example, as an entirely different individual — physically they appear the same, but in qualities and expression and behavior and energy they may be quite different. That change occurs for you have inputted different information into your invisible computer, and it has generated a different picture or a different projection.

FRANK: Let me stop you now. That’s a great explanation, but let’s talk about this process of offering information to myself or to the computer, to use the analogy.

ELIAS: Very well.

FRANK: Exactly what does that mean? Does that refer to my conscious interpretation of events? I’m not sure what that means exactly.

ELIAS: Yes. It is a combination of what you allow in openness. That is expressed by allowing yourself temporarily to circumvent judgment, which, in a manner of speaking, is likened to a temporary experiment — relaxing your judgment in a situation temporarily to allow different information, different input.

In this, generally speaking, what blocks the addition of new information is judgment, which generates closure. It creates closing the window to allow the input. Therefore, there is no openness or exposure. Without the exposure, there is a shielding, and that creates an obstacle for receiving. This is the reason that I express many times repeatedly to individuals, yourself also, that exposure is important, for that is the manner in which you allow yourself to receive. Receiving is important, for that is the manner in which you allow yourself to incorporate new information.

In this, in any situation or expression or encounter that you present to yourself to offer yourself new information, if you allow yourself that openness and allow yourself to temporarily not generate a judgment concerning what you are presenting to yourself, you allow an openness to receive information, and that incorporates the potential to alter your perception.

Now; it also allows you the choice of altering your perception or not, for it allows you to receive new information and evaluate how that is associated with your preferences and your guidelines, and whether you wish to incorporate that information or not, whether you wish to continue with the perception that you have already projected, or whether you choose to alter that. For at times you may offer yourself new information, and you may input that in your invisible computer and project the image, and you may not necessarily prefer the new image. You may actually be more comfortable with the other image, and that is acceptable. But the significance in that action is that you are objectively aware of the choice. It is not merely an automatic response.

FRANK: Let’s sum up here. So, the key is the information I offer to the computer...

ELIAS: Correct.

FRANK: ...and at some stage we need to come back and talk about the hardware, the beliefs. But let’s stay with the information for now. What you are saying that creates that is how I interpret the things that happen to me. This is a function of thinking?

ELIAS: No. It is not a function of thinking. Thinking is associated with it, but perception is not is not necessarily always associated thinking.

FRANK: Let’s take a specific example and maybe that will help me to understand this better. I don’t know; let’s see...

ELIAS: I shall offer an example. Shall we incorporate the example that you expressed in our previous conversation concerning your company and your partner and your differences associated with the output of work and the monies associated with that?

FRANK: Okay, good.

ELIAS: In that, you incorporate one perception. You view the reality of that situation in one manner; therefore, it is your reality. That is the projection; that is the picture that your computer is generating.

Now; your partner incorporates a different picture.

Now; in offering yourself new information or inputting new software to your invisible computer, as you engage your partner, if you are allowing an openness and exposure as I expressed to you previously, and you allow yourself to not express judgment temporarily, that creates a window in which you may input different information.

Now; once you have genuinely allowed yourself to download that different information, you may thusly evaluate that different information and allow yourself to incorporate choices of whether you may incorporate some cooperation with that, whether you may discover some element that would be associated with your preferences in the new information, or whether it is not associated with your preferences. But you cannot genuinely evaluate and offer new information to this invisible computer if you are not generating an openness. If the computer is off, it cannot receive new information. If you are generating an automatic judgment and not generating an openness to new information, in a manner of speaking your computer is set on pause. Therefore, it does not alter its picture.

Now; in our discussion previously, I offered you an action in which you could generate that openness to alter your perception. What I suggested to you was that you engage your interaction with your partner but that you approach that interaction with an appreciation of some type of the employees. Are you remembering?

FRANK: Yes.

ELIAS: That action, that suggestion that I offered to you was an offering of new software which would input new and different information into your invisible computer. But it is your choice of whether you receive that or not, whether you incorporate the action, and whether you allow yourself to continue with that new program and run that program, setting aside the judgment temporarily to allow a time framework to evaluate what new input you are offering to yourself, and thusly subsequently allow yourself to choose what you want. But that requires being aware of yourself and of what you want — not what you want the other individuals to do or to not do. That is the challenging element.

FRANK: Yes, and I think I did that for a while but then I stopped doing it.

ELIAS: I am aware. But you have offered yourself evidence that you do incorporate this ability and that you do incorporate an awareness enough to actually generate this type of action and be aware of what you are doing, and that is significant. For I may express to you, there are many, many individuals that have not quite incorporated that awareness yet.

FRANK: So really, the challenge here with respect to that particular situation is to again suspend judgments and try to feel or express an appreciation of these people and see what happens.

ELIAS: Correct. That is an action which is an intentional alteration of perception.

FRANK: So let me stop you. I think what you are saying is that I do this and then sooner or later I am going to see that reality will change.

ELIAS: Yes.

FRANK: And I’ll observe that and I’ll say I like this, so we’ll just let things go this way. Or I will decide that I like the way they worked before and then go back to the old way.

ELIAS: Correct. But you chose. Each time you input more new information, you also generate an automatic action of widening your awareness more, for that information is not lost. Regardless what you chose, regardless of whether you chose to incorporate action in association with the new information or whether you chose to be continuing in familiar directions for they are keeping with your preferences, it matters not. That information has been inputted and therefore has also incorporated the action of widening your awareness more.

FRANK: I understand what you are saying. So, in this example — and I guess in some sense every example is different but every example in another sense is the same — but in this example, it’s just the case of me saying I really haven’t been appreciative of these people; I’m going to try that and see how that changes things.

ELIAS: Correct.

FRANK: It’s that simple.

ELIAS: Yes. That is an objective intentional action incorporated, which alters perception.

FRANK: In terms of beliefs and the hardware — and I understand that analogy — by choosing to express a different belief, really we are just changing the hardware. Is that what you are saying?

ELIAS: It is not necessarily changing the hardware, which I have expressed many times, and it is not necessarily changing the beliefs. What you are changing is the function of the hardware. The hardware remains the same; the beliefs remain the same. They continue to function, but you may choose which function you want. That is the expression of the influences of the beliefs.

Within your hardware of your computer, you have many different circuits that may create many different functions. It is your choice which function you want the particular circuit to perform. This is an analogy associated with the beliefs. They each incorporate many different influences. Therefore, they can create or influence perception to create many different projections or expressions. As you become familiar with that hardware and you explore what functions it can actually create or what the influences are of each belief, you can choose which influence you want to express, which influence is more preferred, which influence may be more efficient rather than merely incorporating the influence which generates automatic responses similar to your computer. If you incorporate one program in your computer, that one program may generate many different actions. But if you are set upon automatic pilot, you are generating over and over one action, one response.

FRANK: You’ve said things can change instantaneously...

ELIAS: Yes.

FRANK: ...but at least for me, and I think probably for most people, that’s usually not the case. At least currently when I do make changes or change my reality, it happens over a period of time.

ELIAS: Correct. Generally speaking, you incorporate a process. But at times you do surprise yourself and generate a difference instantaneously.

FRANK: Let’s say, for whatever reason, that you suddenly get in the midst of a heated argument with somebody.

ELIAS: Very well.

FRANK: To use your example here, in the middle of this, you recognize what is going on, you offer yourself some new information, and that can change like instantaneously?

ELIAS: Yes.

Now; you may incorporate the same action that we were discussing previously, and that shall offer you IMMEDIATE evidence of how quickly you may alter a situation. You may be in an engagement of conflict and an argument with another individual, and you may alter that situation in a moment by incorporating an awareness of what you are doing and choosing to change your energy. How you change your energy is to move your attention, and therefore offer different input to your perception. The intentional movement to appreciation of ANY ELEMENT of the other individual in a moment and allowing yourself to express that shall immediately alter your energy, which immediately alters the other individual’s energy. For they are receiving your energy in a different manner, and immediately the expression and the energy of threat is dissipated. That, in a moment, shall change the atmosphere and the encounter.

FRANK: Let’s take another example. Frankly, this is one that I have thought about. A few months ago we talked about this — I got a speeding ticket. I was just going along and all of a sudden I see these policeman’s lights in my rearview mirror, and I pretty much knew what was going to happen. How do I, in that moment, change that? (Pause)

ELIAS: I may express to you an example, but I also shall express to you, remember, these are not accidents, and you draw these scenarios to yourself for a reason.

FRANK: In other words, maybe it’s not a good idea to change some of these things.

ELIAS: It is not necessarily a matter of a good or a bad idea, but I am speaking to you of reality, and these are not accidents. In moments in which you generate that type of an action, you are generating that intentionally. It may not appear to you in the moment objectively that you are intentionally creating that, but you are. You are generating that action to move your attention and to offer yourself some information.

An action in which you are in conflict with another individual is a different type of scenario, for generating conflict with another individual generally incorporates a perception of one individual being right and another individual being wrong, and competing with each other to convince one or the other of the rightness or wrongness of the situation. In that action, generally speaking neither individual is paying attention to self and both individuals are incorporating aggression and projecting energy to the other in blame and with themselves in justification. Which in these situations, what is being generated all around is a discounting of each other and of each self...

Tape ends after 56 minutes.

(1) Transcriber Howard’s note: This is so cool! Elias is becoming a real cyber-dude-geek!

©2008 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved

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Copyright 2004 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved.