By Cathy Eck

Believing Others

When I was fresh out of college, I went to work for Peat, Marwick, & Mitchell, the largest accounting firm in the world.  I chose accounting because my parents thought I should be a secretary or teacher (female jobs); I didn’t like either.  So I choose my major based on my husband’s advice, which was what his brothers thought he should do, which was what his dad thought his brothers should do.  So you see, my choice was based on a long line of people believing others knew best.  I thought they knew what was best for me when they didn’t even know what was best for themselves.

I worked as an auditor looking for fraud.  I didn’t love my job, but I worked with really smart people; and I was damn good.  I was rewarded because thinking out of the box was what brought in clients, uncovered fraud, and earned big fees.  But I wasn’t an auditor at heart because auditors expose problems.  Their business can’t exist without problems and fraud.  So they have no motivation to support a better world where accountants are competent and trustworthy.

I left that job after four years to start a business that fixed the causes of the problems I saw.  Eventually, studying causes led to beliefs…

Extreme Believing Others

Yesterday, I watched a television show about apocalyptic beliefs.  The show focused on a popular Christian author, who has written over fifteen fiction books on the apocalypse.  He said he writes to inform people that the end is coming soon, and they need to get saved pronto.

He truly believes he’s doing God’s work.  I felt so much emotion listening to him because everything he said was false.  My emotions were telling me “Don’t believe him,” and I didn’t.  The truth is that he writes from his own beliefs — a fantasy involving compete ruin of the earth and everyone on it except for him and his minions.  Is he the boy who cries wolf or a wolf in sheep’s clothing?   That depends on where we stand as readers.  I think he’s just a guy who believes the voices in his head are God talking.  As they shared the story of his life, it was clear where the voices came from — not God.

I love books because I enjoy reading and learning about people.  I hate them because people read them and believe them without discriminating.  Many authors, like apocalypse man, use the written word to hypnotize others into accepting or supporting beliefs.

In the illusion, humans take beliefs that should simply be entertaining or creative and relabel them truth.  People who read “Harry Potter” don’t usually become magicians.  J.K. Rowling simply wanted to entertain.  But some people have a way of making us believe that their fiction is the truth — often they use fear to do that.  They create stories that get us stuck in the illusion; to get unstuck, we have to see their stories as false.  We must break the hypnosis.

Letting Go of My Past

Last night, after watching the apocalypse show, I dreamed that I was back at Peat Marwick, working with the same bright people except we were running a publishing company.  My job was to read books submitted by authors and determine whether they supported the truth or beliefs (false).  I was once again looking for the lies (or fraud) in books.  My career had come full circle.  Of course, I rejected the apocalypse guy’s dream of him being saved while I burned in hell.  But once again, my heart’s desire was to fix the cause and avoid the problem.

At times these believers look mighty powerful; millions of minions believe them completely.  I ain’t got no minions.  But he’s simply a character within my mind; if I see him as powerful, he is.  I can’t change all the books and eliminate the apocalyptic believers, nor do I have to.

On the surface, we look like opponents.  But we both want the same thing — peace on earth.  In his vision, some win and most lose.  In my vision, everybody can let go of their apocalyptic beliefs.  All can win.

It looks like I need him to change his mind.  It appears that I need minions to live my vision, but I don’t.  I only need to let go of his apocalyptic belief within my mind.  I need to discriminate to set myself free — to find my peace on earth.

The ancient masters explained that our minds were not meant to be interconnected.  We all create our lives through the beliefs we hold within our mind; and we can change our fate by simply letting go of the beliefs that are not useful.  Nothing is predetermined in the true world.

Discrimination

As a young adult, I believed those who were older and wiser.  They were older, but they weren’t wiser.  They simply gave me their best answer based on the sum total of their beliefs (their illusion).  I can’t fault them for what they gave me; I can only fault myself for believing them.  I fell into their beliefs because I thought that others knew the truth when they only knew their beliefs.  The first beliefs that most of us install as children come from our parents:

“If it happened to them, it can happen to me.”  

“I don’t have the answer.”  

These are good beliefs to let go; they don’t serve us.  The apocalypse guy simply writes from his beliefs, his illusion.  If we recognize that, we can enjoy a good read.  Drama was created thousands of years ago to entertain.  But if we hold it as the truth, then we might get to live it — like it or not.

Have opinions or ideas, not beliefs!