by Karen Mortensen
The driver in the car ahead had suddenly braked to avoid a turning car. He had slammed on the brakes but had not been able to avoid the rear-end collision. He knew his impatience and his haste to reach his destination had caused him to follow too closely, but he wasn’t willing or ready to take the responsibility for the accident. Hence, he wailed the above protest in response to the officer’s questions.
The man was not alone in his unwillingness to take responsibility for his experience.
Consider for a moment the concept that what you believe has consequences in your life.
I think of beliefs this way: beliefs have a kind of energy that can be compared to a magnet. They attract experiences that bear out the belief. Soon they seem to take on a life of their own: they grow, they get stronger. This is when you start unconsciously collecting evidence that your belief is truth, and you filter out evidence that does not support it. You become unaware that the belief is a belief. You have collected so much evidence! It must be true!
There are many examples from history if we choose to look at them: the belief that the world was flat (There was plenty of evidence to support that one!), the belief that ships must be constructed of wood, the belief that contraptions heavier than air couldn’t fly, the belief that the sound barrier couldn’t be broken. Yet in every instance, some brave soul was willing to risk humiliation to challenge the belief. And one by one, each belief was replaced by another belief.
In ReSurfacing, Harry Palmer states the following: “You experience what you believe, unless you believe you won’t, in which case you don’t, which means you did.”
When first exposed to this concept, you may feel a mild to severe resistance. It seems difficult to take responsibility for your experiences. You ask, “Do you mean to tell me that a person with cancer is responsible for his/her illness? What about accidents? Floods? Plagues? Pestilence?” The answer is a reminder of the difficulty you create when you are unaware of the beliefs through which you are operating. When you operate through beliefs without seeing them, they are called transparent beliefs.
Avatar has tools for discovering your transparent beliefs (that are attracting experiences you do not prefer) and changing them if you choose. Or if you are already experiencing something you do not prefer, you can change the underlying belief and thus change the experience.
As a result of learning these tools, it becomes as ludicrous to you not to take responsibility for your experiences as it would be to say, “But officer, she was driving too close in front of me!” Avatar is not about transferring a set of beliefs from someone else’s belief system into yours. Avatar is about exploring your own beliefs—your own consciousness. Your Avatar course is about YOU.Karen Mortensen, Cayuga Lake, New York
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