Creating and Paying Attention to Perception
Topics:
“Creating and Paying Attention to Perception”
“Genuinely Being Present”
“The Factor of Importance”
“Perception and Your Senses Are Not Absolute”
Friday, April 24, 2015 (Private/Phone)
Participants: Mary (Michael) and Jason (Spensar)
ELIAS: Good day!
JASON: Hi, Elias.
ELIAS: (Laughs) And what have you been accomplishing?
JASON: Well, I’m looking forward to talking to you today. I wanted to start out with a quick question: Let’s say you had 5 minutes available. What would be more beneficial or empowering: being present for the 5 minutes, or thinking about things to appreciate about yourself and your life?
ELIAS: (11-second pause) Being present.
JASON: I thought so. And is it because of when I do both activities, when I am thinking of things to appreciate I could still be fairly distracted, not centered?
ELIAS: (Pause) If you were genuinely being present, I would express that you would be focused and you would not necessarily be distracted.
JASON: That I was not being present was actually if I’m appreciating myself, I could still be distracted.
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: Okay.
I wanted to ask you about a statement that you made in an earlier session with me, and I’ll repeat it to you. It is, “Perception is, in a manner of speaking, a combination of how you are paying attention to any particular subject and what association you are generating with it in the moment.” That was the statement, so that’s over. I understand what you mean by the subject and the associations, but could you explain what you mean by how you are paying attention?
ELIAS: Yes. That is a significant component, for your attention is a tremendous aspect of the formation of your perception.
Now, in that, it is a combination of what you are paying attention to or how you are directing your attention inwardly and outwardly; therefore, in relation to what you are doing outwardly and inwardly.
Therefore, let us say that you may be generating a physical action of driving your vehicle, but at the same time that you are physically driving your vehicle, you may be occupying or directing your attention to a conflict that you engaged the day before with another individual which also triggered an association in relation to some aspect of being unsafe or generating an association of discounting yourself or being reactive. And in that, although you are, to a degree, paying attention outwardly to driving your vehicle and the destination that you want to arrive at and what you are doing in that physical capacity, and perhaps even to a degree anticipating what you will be doing when you arrive, you are also directing your attention to this other scenario that you are recalling, and you are paying attention to what you felt in relation to that experience and what you may be continuing to feel in relation to that experience, and therefore your attention is being directed in manners that are very much influencing your perception.
Therefore in that moment, you may also be expressing a behavior of becoming agitated and, let us say, short-tempered with other individuals on the road or with your vehicle itself, which generates OTHER feelings that you pay attention to and are not necessarily evaluating what the statement is about those feelings. Therefore, you are only paying attention to the feelings and allowing them to dictate your response or your behavior, and that colors your perception also.
Now in all of that, the only action that you are engaging that would move in the direction of being present is driving the vehicle, but you are not actually being present driving the vehicle, for that is becoming secondary. In that, if you are actually being present, your attention is directed to what you are actually doing in the moment. Therefore, the recall of the conflict the day before is not part of the present. The feelings that were engaged the day before are not part of the present. The anticipation of what you will do when you arrive at your destination is not part of being present.
Now; in that, this is not to say that you always exclude any recall of the past or any projection of future; that is unrealistic, for your attention does move between past, present and future continuously. It is always moving. In that, if you are genuinely being present, the difference is that you notice and you are aware of when your attention is being directed either pastly or futurely, and you are, in a manner of speaking, evaluating that in relation to now. You are aware that those are secondary subjects, not primary subjects, and you are simultaneously automatically evaluating how they are relevant to now or if they even ARE relevant to now, and therefore you automatically generate a more clear and realistic assessment of importance.
JASON: And would that just be a natural part of widening your attention, in a way?
ELIAS: Yes. But it is, at this point, an action that, in a manner of speaking in your terms, you are learning to do. For although it is a natural expression, you have learned throughout your lifetime to be directing your attention differently, and therefore it is no longer a natural action for you to do. Therefore you are re-learning how to be present and how to be directing your attention in relation to importance in a manner that is more concentrated in the now than in any other time framework, which is very different from what you are accustomed to and what you have been taught, for what you have been taught is to pay attention to past and future and pay little attention to the present.
JASON: Okay, thank you.
One of the things that I have been exploring is working with the question, “What kind of perception am I creating now?” And it’s been very interesting and illuminating, and I wanted to ask you about that experience because when I spend some time focusing on that – “What type of perception am I creating now?” – and investigating that, I feel like a very sharp sense of clarity tends to develop that really diminishes distracting thoughts that brings me into the presence in a much sharper and more vivid way than other methods that I have tried or used.
ELIAS: Excellent!
JASON: And it’s also easier to notice, like I think I’m beginning to grasp how I develop certain perceptions. It’s very easy to see whether my attention is on myself or my attention is on another object if I’m paying attention to the type of perception I’m creating. I can feel in a way the difference when my attention moves to myself.
So, what I wanted to ask about was… I guess explore different expressions from a perceptual point of view. In other words, I can understand the difference between paying attention to myself and an outside source very easily, and I guess getting a sense of my own comfort. I guess would satisfaction from that point of view just be that, you know, you’re not really trying to do anything else? (Laughs)
ELIAS: In a manner of speaking, although there are points in which the factor of doing something else is a part of it, for that would be the inspiration and the motivational factor in moving forward or expanding in any expression or direction.
I’m not merely speaking of expanding your awareness, although that is a part of any expansion. But even in relation to mundane activities or any expression of inspiration, there is a factor of projecting futurely to a degree and anticipating or evaluating what direction you will be engaging or what you are already engaging and developing that; therefore, it is not exclusively a matter of not entertaining anything except now. And even aspects of past are used in your evaluation of how to move forward, or what is more satisfying to you, and therefore what direction you would be moving into.
Therefore, there are those factors which are a part of being present but that they are recognized in the capacity of their position – not being primary in their position, but being other factors that are contributant to the primary position, which IS present.
JASON: Okay. I guess I wanted to ask more about the experience of paying attention to the type of perception I’m creating now, and whether that is a natural… like a step moving from paying attention to what you’re doing to the perception that you’re creating. Is that a natural progression? Is it just a different –
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: Okay.
ELIAS: Definitely. It is an expansion.
JASON: Because in a way, everything is a perception.
ELIAS: Yes. Everything IS a perception. That is the reason that perception is so important. And in that, yes, moving from paying attention to what you are doing and being aware of what you are doing in the now, being present, and moving into an awareness of your perception in the present is a next step. It is an expanded step, yes.
JASON: Okay. That’s good, because I did have a little bit of doubt, just because it’s new. (Elias laughs) It’s a way of experiencing that doesn’t feel maybe as comfortable yet as this.
ELIAS: I am understanding, and that was an excellent question, for that IS a natural progression. It IS an expansion, and to this point, most individuals have not quite engaged that step in their awareness of what they are doing to move from paying attention to what they are doing to paying attention to their perception of what they are doing.
JASON: It’s a very sharp difference. I find that when I’m paying attention to what I’m doing, I can also be distracted, although the more I pay attention to what I’m doing, let’s say I’m less distracted over time. Things come into a much sharper and vivid focus, and it’s very clear what I’m doing and what I’m expressing when I’m focusing on the actual perception.
ELIAS: I would very much agree. And in that, what have you noticed in how long you can maintain that?
JASON: That’s funny that you say that (Elias laughs), because initially it was not very long at all. I've been practicing with it, but there is a limit where it becomes either uncomfortable or it’s difficult to maintain and I just go back into my normal way of paying attention at some point.
ELIAS: It is very unfamiliar, and therefore, when you are initially doing it, it is – if you were to analyze it, in a manner of speaking, and define it – when you are initially expressing in that manner, it is fascinating and exciting and interesting, but it moves from that expression very quickly to the idea that it is difficult, that it requires more energy, and without thinking, the feeling of it changes. And the reason that the feeling of it changes is that your body consciousness is expressing that feeling, signaling you that you have changed how you are paying attention to it.
JASON: Interesting.
ELIAS: And in that action, that is the piece of what I was expressing in relation to attention. It is a matter of HOW you are directing your attention. For when you change how you are directing your attention, you can be engaging the very same action, but when you change how you are associating with that action, how you are paying attention to it, you generate signals from your body consciousness that alert you that how you are directing your attention has changed. And in that, it can very quickly move from being comfortable or exciting or interesting to uncomfortable – not that it actually IS uncomfortable but that you begin to very quickly generate an association: “This requires more energy. This is hard.”
JASON: There’s a strain to maintain it.
ELIAS: Yes, which it is not. It does not require any more energy than anything else you are doing; it merely is different, and you are not accustomed to it. In actuality, when you BECOME accustomed to it and when it becomes more automatic, it requires LESS energy to maintain THAT state of awareness than it does to actually concentrate.
JASON: And when you’re perceiving in that manner, it seems to be that everything has more of a neutral aspect rather than an “I like this or I can’t stand this.”
ELIAS: Precisely. And the reason for that is what I expressed to you previously, is that it, in a manner of speaking, puts into perspective that factor of importance, and you begin to become aware of how much in your expression and around you and in your world is not important (Jason laughs) – how much you generate so many different aspects of your world, your reality to be important because of constructs. Not that they actually ARE important, but that the constructs dictate that they are important.
JASON: I totally would agree with that, and you could see very clearly that spending time talking about politics or something that’s very conceptual is not terribly important. And I’ve had success in creating from that state very easily some unusual items, unusual experiences – and I mean unusual just that in it doesn’t happen that often, so I associate it with being more successful than normal rather than just pure luck. (Laughs) Does that make sense? I believe it would be because it’s much easier to see than when you’re either discounting yourself or opposing yourself.
ELIAS: Very much so! Yes.
JASON: And just to let it go.
ELIAS: Not only when you are discounting yourself or opposing yourself, it could be discounting of a situation. For example, if you are in that state of awareness where you are paying attention to your perception of a situation, you could be engaging a younger individual or a child, and that child could be expressing in a moment that the idea of college is not interesting to them and not important to them and they do not want to engage college, and that they have generated a decision that they will not. If you are in that state of being aware of your perception, you are also aware of your own guidelines in how they influence your perception, and they are less influencing in relation to other individuals. Therefore, your response to that child may be very different, and that subject and that expression may not necessarily be as important to you. Whereas, if you were NOT paying attention to your perception of that situation and that conversation, it may be very important to you – not that it is actually important, but you think it is important. Therefore, you may express very differently to that child and then offer them all of the reasons that they are incorrect.
JASON: (Chuckles) It sounds like you’re talking about last night.
ELIAS: Now; in that, your idea is that you are being encouraging and helpful, and that your motivation is to see this child reach their potential in the most beneficial manner possible for them. And in your idea or in your perception at that moment, you would not perceive at all that you were discounting of that child, when in actuality you are discounting, for you are expressing a judgment to that child that they cannot create their reality in an efficient, effective and successful manner unless they engage that action of engaging college. Regardless of whether they disagree with you or not, you are expressing a discounting of them that unless they do this, they cannot create their reality successfully and in a beneficial manner to themself.
JASON: Yeah, it’s tied up in a lot of associations, …
ELIAS: Very much so.
JASON: … because then there’s also the association that, “Well, if I don’t tell him this or react this way, then my wife will be disappointed with me.” (Laughs)
ELIAS: Precisely! Therefore, there are many, many, many constructs that are involved in what you do.
But the point in all of this is that all of these factors, all of these constructs are a matter of how you are directing your attention and how that is creating the perception that you express.
And in that, when you ARE aware of your perception and those constructs become less important to you, it is not that you become instantly blank and unaware that other individuals around you are continuing to operate with those constructs. You are aware that other individuals are expressing from those constructs and the importance that they hold to them, and in that, it is not necessarily that black and white of not honoring yourself and therefore acquiescent to them, or honoring yourself and creating conflict between yourself and the other individuals. No, there are other choices that you can honor, as in our scenario, that child and their expression.
You can also express your opinion and define it as your opinion, and you can also encourage that child, in relation to genuineness, that they can create their reality without those requirements or without those particular guidelines or expressions or actions, but also that those particular expressions do incorporate a place in your world, that knowledge is always beneficial.
JASON: Okay.
I wanted to ask you about moving from the step from noticing the perception you’re creating to creating the perception that you want. And in this way, some of it is easy. Again, it’s very easy to see how I can value myself or I could look for validation from others versus creating the value in or putting the value on myself directly; that’s easy. But what about other perceptions like creating the perception that I am thinner and more athletic (laughs), stuff like that?
ELIAS: Very well. In that, the first aspect is the recognition that your senses are not infallible, the recognition that your senses are designed to express information to you in an absolute manner but that there are no absolutes. When I express to you that your senses are designed to express information to you in an absolute manner, what is meant by that is that your senses do not question; they merely relay input. And because your senses do not question, they relay that information or that input in an absolute manner, for there is no question involved.
In this, that does not mean that the information that your senses are delivering IS absolute; it merely means that your senses are not questioning the input. Therefore, when you look in the mirror, your eyes, your visual sense is seeing a picture. That picture is only one version. The picture that you see is not the same as the picture that your partner sees or that your coworker sees or that your supervisor sees or that the clerk in the grocery store sees. There are countless versions of that picture ; you see one of them. In that, the first element in relation to awareness and perception is recognizing that the input of your senses is not absolute and therefore is only one version of any input.
An excellent example is sound and your own voice. How you hear your own voice is not the same as how other individuals hear your voice, for how you hear your voice is one version of the tones that you express. This is further emphasized when you engage another individual and you are, let us say, especially paying attention to your tone intentionally and are, in your perception, regulating your tone to be even, and the other individual expresses to you that you are yelling at them. They actually hear yelling. You actually hear an even tone.
JASON: (Laughs) You keep picking stuff that happened yesterday.
ELIAS: That is different in perception, and that is the input of senses. In this, your senses are influenced to engage a particular version of what they are inputting in relation to your association.
Therefore, if you are not engaging a considerable amount of physical activity, you automatically generate an assessment of yourself that you are not exercising. The factor that you generate that assessment of not exercising influences your sight.
JASON: That’s it exactly.
ELIAS: What you see when you see your reflection, when you look at your body consciousness, that association between your body and muscle tone and weight is all connected with your idea of how much you engage physical activity. “Less physical activity equals less muscle tone” [is] not necessarily correct and definitely not absolute, but that is the association – therefore, once again, what you pay attention to, how you are directing your attention, which is not always a matter of thinking. Individuals equate attention with thinking, and they are not the same. In this, when you look at your body, you see a body that reflects what you believe.
JASON: Let me try to explain it and see if you would agree. Is it the idea that within my experience I’ll have some perceptions of being thin, of being fat, of not noticing myself, and whatever I pay more attention to is what I’ll experience, or that I’ll see myself reflected as?
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: So when I’m working out and I’m exercising, I’m generating those perceptions of focusing in on whether it’s adding muscle or the body being athletic, and then that’s what leads to what the senses pick up?
ELIAS: Yes. And in addition to that, you actually do create that in physical manifestation, for that is the function of perception. Your perception is actually creating what you feel or what you are paying attention to.
Now, the difference and the tricky aspect of that is that that is not static. It is, once again, not absolute. It fluctuates continuously from moment to moment. Therefore, you can actually create retiring to bed one evening and generating the perception that you have little muscle tone and that you are gaining weight and that your shape is unappealing to you and that you are unattractive. And the next morning you can arise, look at your body consciousness and actually perceive that you weigh 5 or 10 pounds less than you did the night before, and it is not an optical illusion. For, in that moment that perception creates that actual physical manifestation.
JASON: And it’s learning to trust that rather than going back to, “Oh no, somebody told me once that you can only lose a pound a day, so it can’t really be happening”? (Laughs)
ELIAS: Correct. And in that, it is a matter of knowing your perception creates every moment of your reality and every aspect of it, and it can change from moment to moment and there are no absolutes. And in that, your senses are not absolute either.
And you can even experiment with that and play with it and choose some aspect of your perception of yourself, and then ask five different people within the day a question about that particular perception. Such as asking five different people within the day, “How do you see my body?” or “What is my appearance to you? How would you describe my appearance?” Or you could even be more specific and you could express, “What is your perception, or what is your visual of my appearance? Do I appear to be average? Do I appear to be thin? Do I appear to be overweight?” and listen to their answers.
Generally speaking, most of them will likely be similar, but they will have differences. Generally they will be similar, but each individual will perceive you differently. And in that, how much do they match your perception of yourself, and in what capacities do they differ from your perception of yourself?
JASON: Hm!
ELIAS: I would express to you, you could choose an aspect of yourself that seems very absolute to you such as the color of your hair, and ask five different individuals to describe the color of your hair, and they will not all be the same.
JASON: Okay. And just to clarify or to finish up – I think we’re getting close on time here – on the idea of the perception that you’re paying attention to, or I guess it’s the perception of yourself that you’re paying more attention to: The way I think about it is, sometimes you might be walking, you feel good and you just feel, let’s say, thin, and that is the perception?
ELIAS: Yes!
JASON: Other times, you feel the opposite. If you paid more attention to that, then that’s what you’re going to get more of.
ELIAS: Precisely, yes.
JASON: And that would apply to abundance, friends, whatever?
ELIAS: Precisely, yes.
JASON: Fascinating.
ELIAS: In everything, in anything, it applies to all. And it is a recognition that perception is not merely what you think; it is actually real. It actually creates a real reality, moment by moment, but it is also very flexible and very changeable – and can be changeable in dramatic manners, at times, from one moment to the next.
JASON: Right. Yeah, and just paying attention to myself I can see the differences. Interesting.
ELIAS: I would be considerably acknowledging of you, my friend. This is a significant step, is being aware of perception, and I would congratulate you on that accomplishment. And in that, acknowledge yourself more and more when you are expressing that, and even if you are only maintaining it for several minutes, that is significant. For the more you practice and the more you do it, the easier it will become.
JASON: Then it just becomes your natural way of perceiving.
ELIAS: Precisely.
JASON: It always seems like the difference between your physical life and… It’s a narrower difference – or you perceive a narrow difference – between everyday life and dreams and anything else.
ELIAS: (Laughs) [Inaudible]
JASON: Okay. I think I’m good here. It’s actually what I wanted to cover. If there’s anything else you wanted to add, otherwise I know Mary has things to do.
ELIAS: Well, my friend, I would express a tremendous congratulations to you. This is an excellent movement. And in that, a tremendous encouragement to continue and to practice and to experiment, play with it. The more you play with it, the less you will be perceiving or associating that it is difficult or requires so much more energy, and it will be easier.
[The timer for the session rings]
JASON: I could totally see that. I think the playing with it just becomes a natural byproduct of seeing it that way.
ELIAS: Yes. I would very much agree, and I would be very encouraging of you in that direction.
JASON: Thank you. Thank you, Elias. It was great talking to you, and I look forward to talking to you when you get back from your trip.
ELIAS: And I also with you. Until our next meeting, my dear friend, in great encouragement and in tremendous lovingness as always, au revoir.
JASON: Goodbye.
(Elias departs after 59 minutes)
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