How do we create a better reality for ourselves using affirmations to replace negative mental patterns with positive ones? We have far more power to turn negative thinking to positive intention than most believe, which in turn shapes our future in better ways than we imagine.

I last gave this to you 15 years ago, and figured it is a good time to revisit the material, since we all need a “mental makeover” from time to time. When we learn how to replace instinctive negative responses with chosen positive redirection of energy, we are on the way to a much happier life.

We’ll begin with the truth that “matter follows thought,” and “thoughts are things.” An idea repeated for any length of time becomes a habit. We know we can change habits if we consciously choose a different response when the habitual action, feeling or idea comes up.

If we want to change negative thoughts, it requires us taking time to train our minds to generate positive and useful thoughts rather than repeat the same old unhelpful images that are making us feel negative. While it’s normal to repeat learned ideas, thoughts, and feelings, many of these were programmed when we were young and unconscious. These habits of our subconscious mind don’t go away as we grow. If anything, they become stronger through repetition over the years.

We all have five senses and a mind. These naturally reference what is known and familiar. We are programmed to take in sensory information, and then try to interpret it using the experiences we’ve had. That of course can lead to erroneous assumptions, since what’s going on may have no relationship to what has been.

When we take a long look at our negative thought patterns, we see in every case it’s associated with some illusion or delusion. We are told from ancient sources that the “eternal reality” is beneficent and brings forth the objects of our intention. That promises each of us that we can find our way out of delusions of pessimism and negative thinking if we have the intention to do so.

Also remember we are all feeling everything all the time, and often we pick up on the collective unconscious and its toxic soup of pessimism, frustration, fear, negativity, and the proverbial ten thousand delusions. Though we may feel these things, we do not have to attach to them. If we would get beyond negativity associated with delusions, we must learn to recognize delusions and have an ability not to play to them. That requires training in discernment and the ability to choose not to buy into them.

My own default is “never give the illusion more power than it deserves, which is none at all.” I tend to assume that illusions and delusions are common, a bit like mosquitos, and so am vigilant for when they present themselves so I can swat them or walk away from them. While we must examine the negative thoughts and feelings when they arise, we shouldn’t perpetuate them by attaching to them. At this point, I’ll quote from a venerable source regarding delusions and illusions:

In the world of sense, facts are not altered by human delusions … you can correct a delusion by examining the facts… (but) if we study a problem from the wrong spirit of judgment, we then carry that wrong judgment over into the thing itself, and it becomes interwoven with the fact, the two becoming very difficult to distinguish. The error is no longer in the person, and the correct fact exterior to him, but the error will have become a component part of the exterior fact. You will see the extremely fertile source for illusion and deception… without the proper training.

The student becomes able to exclude delusions which might tinge the phenomena … with the color of his own making the second source of such delusions ineffective. He is able to do away with what arises within himself … and he will also be able to eliminate the second source of delusion if he is able to develop the power for judging by the nature of a fact … whether it be real or illusionary. If the delusions were exactly of the same appearance as the realities, differentiation would be almost impossible. But this is never the case; illusions … have their own peculiarities which makes it possible to distinguish them from realities, which shows the importance of knowing the qualities by which you can recognize the reality.

Anyone (could) naturally come to the conclusion …that one would have his hands full in guarding against delusions, since they are so numerous. He may also think that possibly all of the experiences of the (spiritual) world might be delusions. Anyone taking this view ignores the fact that all true occult training develops you so that you do not have to depend upon what someone else tells you, and you are taught how to proceed to remove the sources of delusion.

We are told that our spiritual preparations in life should lead us to enough knowledge so we can avoid other’s delusions and our own self-delusion. This is about being “level-headed, and capable of using right judgment at all times.” We cannot “rely on vague presentiments and premonitions,” and must show caution as we move through the delusions of the world. . This requires training in sound judgment “which makes it possible to distinguish between illusions and reality.”

Ultimately, we must learn to distinguish our own internal bias, and train in techniques to detach from accepting appearances and assertions without investigation. Still, as delusions are everywhere, from the most dense ideas to the most seemingly elevated spiritual ideals, we must learn a degree of detachment from what we want to hear or know so we can investigate anything as it is, and not as we wish it to be.

This ability to test what is real and what is unreal is most important as we explore our own spiritual bias relative to the communications we hear which are asserted as “truth.” As the source material states, “The student should do all he can to distinguish between what he learns from one kind of knowledge and that of another. He must be willing to accept communications made to him regarding the higher worlds, and should try to understand them by using his own observations; before he accepts them he must carefully test them to see whether they possess exactly the qualities which he has learned to be correct by his infallible intuition.”

We all learned negative thoughts when we were younger. Getting rid of them requires patience and the ability to detach and examine all ideas and feelings, both good and bad, from an angle of dispassionate evaluation as to their reality or unreality. All negativity arises from a delusion. Learn to recognize when an illusion or delusion is in play, and you’ll quickly turn negative thoughts to an understanding of the subtle forces in play helping you to become more aware of the good and less attached to perceiving the bad.

In the next part we’ll discuss a few techniques to redirect the mind from negative thoughts to more clear and positive intentions. We’ll take a look at the subconscious mind, how uncontrolled emotions, fear, and unhelpful memories have conditioned all of us to negativity, and how to move toward happier, more positive feelings and thoughts regardless of outer conditions.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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