The Wreckage of Projection
Projection is a commonly used psychological term. It is a commonly used term when discussing relationships. What is not commonly understood is that perception is projection.
Perception is not separate from projection and projection is not separate from perception.
There is an automatic response mechanism in which as soon as you “see” what you’re looking at, you automatically and immediately project onto the object of your observation your perception, your interpretation of what you’re looking at. There is no gap between the two. In fact, you can’t perceive without projecting the perception.
Because perception is automatic and you rarely question the conclusions that your perception produces, you assume that what you’re looking at is not only there but what you’re looking at real and true.
Essentially, you believe what you see whether it’s there or not, but if you don’t believe it, you won’t see it even when it’s standing right in front of you. It happens all the time.
There are national events that become the focus of the evening news every night in which you can watch from beginning to end the process of perception projection gone bad. I honestly wonder if a human being can ever learn to perceive the world without projecting onto the world the thoughts, ideas, concepts, experiences, actions, conclusions, etc that the mind produces. I think it’s possible but that would require a new “seeing” which I often discuss. Of course, I am mainly referring to those debilitating perceptual fields, those habitual perceptual patterns that are negative at their origin.
Because there is no unified field theory that has been produced that results in oneness, relativity represents the average person’s version of reality, and as a result, any perceptual truth is based solely on a subjective position. Something is what it is depending on where you’re standing. A simple truth of understanding a basic principle of the mind is that the mind cannot not respond. Therefore, the mind cannot not perceive, meaning, therefore, because perception is projection, the mind cannot not project. It takes great training and development to overcome those neural pathways in the mind and body.
Something is what it is depending on where you’re standing.
There are stories of Buddhist monks who went about the business of conquering what is referred to as the startle reflex. It’s not hard to equate the effects of the startle reflex with the automatics reactions you have on a daily basis to those events or dynamics that activate your system. They don’t even have to startle you but they’re the same thing.
So, the idea of being able to accomplish something like that is being able to somehow shortcut the neurological pathway that results in your acting crazy and would be highly beneficial in daily life, which is a huge interest to me. There is a massive amount of research in this field that you can investigate if you choose.
I would like to provide a living example of what I am talking about. Habitual emotional and perceptual responses and patterns are buried in each individual and they can remain dormant for years until a certain stimulus awakens them without you even being aware of it. Suddenly, you find yourself living out a past event in your life in the present moment, although that past event is not actually taking place, it sure feels like it does and it looks like it does. The mind doesn’t know the difference between what it’s looking at and what it remembers because the same neurological process is being activated. This is the reason that so many have such trouble living in the present- the majority of people live in the past because that is what their minds perceive: the past. Now, remember that when I use the word perceive, I also imply that you project your perception automatically onto the object of your perception, the world, even yourself.
Perception is projection and there’s so much wreckage that results from projection.
I do believe and know that you can begin the process of withdrawing your projections, particularly from family members and that will enhance, improve and enlarge those relationships but in order to do that, it would require altering the perception.
Perception is projection but perception does precede projection.
That would mean that you would have to be absolutely conscious of how you were choosing to perceive the object or person which means that you would be overriding your closed-tape-loop system, overriding your mind, and projecting onto the object or person your choice of how to perceive them. That’s pretty amazing if you think about it.
You would be walking around deliberately making stuff up in your head and then simultaneously projecting onto the world the thoughts, ideas, concepts that you have. Of course, that can be devastatingly negative or it can be unbelievably positive. Whatever it is that you insist is reality, is. And let’s say it’s negative. “Life sucks, my life sucks, I hate being alive, I’m never going to make it, nobody loves me”- whatever it is. Now, you can’t see it but as soon as the perception is activated, it is simultaneously projected.
The mind literally creates a holographic reality that establishes the negative in all directions, creating a prison for itself. But the prison that is created then turns right around and confirms for the person that the perception is real and true. It’s like pinging a cellphone tower. You see what you’re looking for and then you find it. That’s unbearable and that’s orgasmic, depending on your viewpoint.
You might call it a self-fulfilling prophesy or you could call it reverse projection in which the perception, such as “nobody loves me”, bounces off the physical world, returning to the individual in such a way that the perception is confirmed. If you accuse someone of being a jerk and they respond back to you like a jerk, your perception is confirmed. You get to be right.
as soon as the perception is activated, it is simultaneously projected.
Energy attracts like energy, except now we see this isn’t just an esoteric process but one that results in addiction, depression, emotional dysfunction, suicide, panic, anxiety, and an endless list of physiological conditions because there is no such thing as mental or psychological perception without a physiological response by the body.
Perception is not just projection but it is also keenly related to physical and emotional health.
If a person shares with you their perception, they are also sharing, whether they think they’re revealing it not, the emotion behind their perception. You have to pay attention. Emotions which are more like holographic images reveal the world in which the person lives. So, the solution to all of this goes back to your mind’s content and as long as you keep justifying your content, you’re screwed.
But it’s even deeper than that.
Remember, perception is based upon your life’s experiences and I’m trying to help you see that perception is not based upon your experiences but upon your existence and that means that you’re at choice. But certainly, let’s be clear: not a whole lot is going to change in your life as long as your mind’s content is your principal source of knowing. The knowledge about your existence is not going to be found in your mind’s content. You are going to have to go beyond this level of mind to access what is real and bring it out into the world of make-believe and create a different reality.
This is, of course, none other than the movement into a spiritual existence. This transformation is, I believe, the next step to solving the issue of projection for no matter how you examine the mind’s content, you always end up pretty much right back where you started. But let’s go into a little greater depth.
Many people can clearly see their patterns getting activated. Now, most of the time, that clarity comes only after the pattern has been activated and played out.
If you had been able to observe the pattern before, you would not just be able to see the beginning of the pattern.
You would also be able to describe how the pattern is going to end up because the pattern is the pattern.
You would know the ending before the pattern knew the ending because the pattern is always playing out thinking that somehow, this time, it’s going to be able to solve the problem, eradicate or remove the problem once and for all.
Of course, all the pattern does is expand the problem. It doesn’t deviate very much.
But where is the pattern stored? If it is in the mind, where is it in the mind? Now, this is important because if you can’t find it, you can’t do anything about it. I want to suggest to you that the pattern is stored in the cells of your body and there’s a reason I know this from my own experience. If the pattern is stored in the cells of the body, then that means that mind is not your brain or that your mind is located in your skull.
Mind is contained in every cell of your body, fully integrated, connecting to and affecting all processes, respiratory, digestive, cardiac, adrenal, etc. So, here’s my example of how I know that mind is located in the cellular structure of mind-body.
Because of the violence I experienced as a child from roughly age 7-14, each night always left me on the edge, not knowing when the hammer was going to fall, but knowing that it was going to. I lived in a perpetual state of being trapped and knew that I couldn’t do anything about it.
Of course, as the years passed by, I had no awareness of this at all, but my toes began to curl upward. Because my mind and body were constantly exposed to this state of shock that I encountered in dealing with my step-father, my toes adopted this state of shock as a way of life.
My shoes always curled upwards then and still do today. It was only until I began to become aware of the long-term effects of my childhood that I was able to start inserting a new mind, if you will, into my toes, to teach my body that there is nothing to fear, that I am safe. My toes did the best they could under the circumstances. So, at the age of 30, I started learning yoga and relaxation, and meditation and it is still an ongoing process for me today.
I am suggesting that mind is stored in the cellular structure of your body and in order to change that, you are going to have to teach the cells of your body a new song, a new existence.
I am suggesting that what you project onto the world, onto other people, onto yourself is contained in the cells of your body and is not simply a thought.
This process of becoming takes the essence of those experiences not just from your childhood but throughout your life to form an evolutionary pathway toward your awakening. The purpose of suffering is to cause you to overcome suffering and free you at last from the mental, physical and emotional constraints learned from those experiences.
This process is going to continue until you realize that the only way to get out of the process and the suffering and the pain is to learn a new song. So, you may as well go ahead and start singing. And that’s not easy and that’s OK because it’s the only thing going on.
But whatever it is that is contained in that process is what you project onto the world.
Of course, and it’s not hard to realize this, that wellness and good health are predicated upon your ability to teach the cells of your body a new song and to transcend the makings of the mind, its submergence into the past and its false realities. So, that becomes quite a task.
This is what the Mother said about that task:
“The point, however, is how to go there at all. Well, the first thing is that you must completely silence your mind. Mental cogitations, agitations you must leave behind, no thoughts must enter your consciousness, it must be tranquil and still, like a tram parent sheet of water or smooth and polished like a mirror. The description I have given of a library is only an image, the real thing is something different. However, you have in this way some idea to go upon. In the silent mind you form a point of consciousness and send it out as an emissary to gather the required information.
This point of conscious-ness must be absolutely detached and free to go as it likes; for if it were in any way kept tied to the normal movements of your own mind, then you will not go further than what is in your head. You must be able to make your brain a blank, you must have no preconceived notion, no idea that the solution of your problem might lie in this way or that. As I say, your mind has to be a thoroughly blank page, a clean slate, with nothing written on it, no mark even. There should be instead a sincere aspiration to know the truth, without postulating beforehand what kind of truth it might be; otherwise, you will meet your own formation in the brain.”
What you project onto the world, onto other people, onto yourself is contained in the cells of your body and is not simply a thought.
Now, let’s make some connections:
Perception is projection.
To remove your projections, you can’t simply remove your perceptions because…
The mind cannot not perceive; it cannot not respond.
ACIM says, “Perception is the vehicle by which all ignorance is brought to knowledge.”
To be able to remove your projections or at least be able to neutralize them, you have to learn to see differently.
To learn to see differently, you must gain a different knowledge.
To gain a new knowledge, you must begin to create a life that is founded upon a spiritual existence.
And like your whole life, it begins with a new thought, and with practice, that new thought will project itself onto the world and now, these changes can produce a new way of living, of being, of seeing.
What you see is what you get.
I want to emphasize yet again that the knowledge you are seeking is the knowledge you are. The you you are seeking is the you you are. So, don’t get caught up in thinking that the solution lies somewhere else.
It’s a tricky business coming to terms with this because it’s really a three-part problem that:
Perception is built up the basis of experience and not truth.
Perception is projection.
Now, the solutions you seek for the problems related to this, you seek outside of yourself.
The problems are never resolved because you are looking in the wrong places.
The cycle just keeps repeating itself.
The knowledge you are seeking is the knowledge you are.
It’s being stuck to the wheel and you just can’t get off. You see, and I’m being redundant, the thing that you seek, is the thing that you are, so, all efforts to find the solutions to your particular problems are predetermined to fail until you start realizing that something else is going on.
I don’t know if there’s a better example of the wreckage of projection than in the arena of love and romantic relationships. Everyone has done it- projected onto another person that that person can make you well, can cause you to feel whole and complete, can cause you to feel loved and cherished. All of us have projected onto the other person the belief that that person holds the keys to our insecurity, to our fears. And, of course, it works in the negative direction as well, projecting onto another individual that they are the source of your pain, of your suffering, of the fact that your life isn’t working out the way it should be. And neither of these cases, the positive nor the negative, are true.
You are the source of your well-being and you are the source of your pain. Doing the best you can to withdraw your projections from others requires a vigilant approach to managing your perceptions and directing all your perceptions into a unified perceptual field that invites you to unite all of your perceptions into simple observation, that everything that is happening is all the same thing. The Mother made the simple observation that the perception of Time changes with the concentration of consciousness. As long as our consciousness is sense-bound, and the result of that is automatic perception-projection, we remain discontent and we not only perceive but experience and perceive an-going friction with linear time.
But as you begin to understand that perception is choice and you deliberately and consciously go about the business of realizing that you are not only the perceiver but the thing being perceived and that you and the object of your perception are one and the same, your perception of time is altered. The drama of your life begins to dissipate and you find yourself accessing new mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual conditions.
You are inspired and you begin to aspire to greater heights because you realize that there is a greater force inside of you and the status quo, the old life you used to live can no longer satisfy you. Think of consciousness this way (this comes from Aurobindo):
“Consciousness is like a billion mirrors of mirrored images of what is mirrored, as it perceives nothing but itself everywhere it looks. Omnipresence is what is seen or known by Omniscience, what sees and is seen is the same thing, consciousness must therefore be this very Omnipresence. Realize and recognize that no matter what is perceived, it exists within Omnipresence and is known by Omniscience and that the confusion arising from perception is only confusion in-as-much as we think we are the perceiver of it.”
As I end this message, I want to share a quote from Sufi Master; Pir Khan said of perception,
“The Divine (Self) cannot be the object of your knowledge because it is the subject who knows.”
Now, that would be a pretty magnificent thing to project onto the world, the divine you seeing itself in the mirror.
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