The Difference Between Knowing and Believing
Topics:
“Anticipation"
“The Difference Between Knowing and Believing”
Friday, January 6, 2017 (Private/Phone)
Participants: Mary (Michael) and Jason (Spensar)
"The more present you are, the more aware of your choices you become…You don’t have choices when you are not aware. You do have choices when you are."
“…[K]nowing and believing, and being present: in that combination, my friend, you are invincible, and the world is your oyster.”
ELIAS: Good afternoon!
JASON: Hi, Elias.
ELIAS: (Laughs) And how are you proceeding?
JASON: Great. Thank you.
ELIAS: And moving into your new year wondrously?
JASON: Yeah. You could definitely say that. (Elias laughs) Particularly in the last few days, in the last week and more so in the last few days, there’s been an increasing sense of presence, and along with that presence a very marked and continuously developing where I’m reacting less.
ELIAS: Before you move on to another subject, let me ask of you to contribute by expanding upon that slightly and explaining that. There are many individuals that connect with your conversations with myself and are inspired, but I would also express that there are many individuals that are confused in how you accomplish what you accomplish.
JASON: Okay. Specifically on the presence, what I found very helpful to do was rather than like a set meditation period, I simply made a game out of using reminders. (Laughs)
ELIAS: Ah, excellent! Such as?
JASON: I have a little counter that I’ll click each time as a reminder to be present, and so it becomes a game to stay continuous with that.
ELIAS: That is an excellent method.
JASON: And then I find that the periods of presence have become sort of gelled together. (Laughs)
ELIAS: Excellent. And what do you do when you are in the midst of some situation, such as an interaction with your partner or some type of annoyance with one of your children, or—
JASON: (Laughs) So, we’ve talked about these interactions with my family where I’ve felt that I couldn’t help but reacting. Well, this week we had an incident where my wife and my son were arguing over homework and some other things, and it was probably one of the most… it was one of their worst arguments ever. (Laughs) And I had absolutely… I was completely at ease in it. And I wasn’t avoiding. I actually was helping out and assisting. But I didn’t feel I was able to by asking my (inaudible) son each moment. I was able to be a part of it without reacting, and it was a completely different experience.
ELIAS: Ahhh. Now that is somewhat different, asking yourself what are you doing. Now in that, are you also being aware of what you are feeling?
JASON: Generally, yes. I would say that the emphasis of my practice changes from timeframe to timeframe, where it may be more on sensory input versus what I’m doing and how I feel, and then at other times it’ll go the other way.
ELIAS: Very well.
JASON: But the longer I do it, the more that it seems to include all of it.
ELIAS: I would agree, and that is the key. And as I have expressed to you and to other individuals and continue to do so, the key is repetition. The more familiar you become with doing the action, the easier it becomes and the more your perception changes about it. In the beginning, initially, your perception may be “This is ridiculous. This won’t accomplish anything,” but you do it anyway. And eventually – which that eventually does not actually incorporate a considerable amount of time – but eventually, you stop automatically questioning what you are doing, and your attention moves in more of a direction of curiosity of what it will produce.
JASON: Yes. And then also the curiosity that naturally grows of “What am I doing all the time?” (Laughs)
ELIAS: Yes. Yes. I would agree.
JASON: Interesting development right before this call started and it was delayed, and I felt a little bit of a disappointment, and I asked myself why I was doing this. And I got back the answer: anticipation. (Laughs)
ELIAS: Ah!
JASON: And it showed me – we’ve talked a little bit about this – but anticipation can be very challenging to… to…
ELIAS: Stop.
JASON: Stop. Yes. And I was able in the period before the call started to be able to play with that a little bit and see how my experience changes when I remove that anticipation. And I recognize it from periods in the past where that’s occurred, but I didn’t know what it was.
And then a few other things started to make sense, such as there was a quote by another source (laughs), so to speak, that I really, really liked but I didn’t necessarily… I felt like I was missing part of it. But it was simply [to] ask yourself what do you choose, and then look carefully to see whether or not that choice is reflected in experience, and you will find overwhelmingly that it is. You will find no discrepancy between what you have chosen and what you experience.
And that makes immediate sense when you’re not anticipating.
ELIAS: Correct. And you changed the reality. You changed the outcome.
JASON: The outcome?
ELIAS: You changed the outcome because we ARE engaging this conversation now.
JASON: Aha! Yeah, I was wondering that. (Laughs) Wow, that is a great example.
ELIAS: I would agree. And it occurred relatively quickly, correct?
JASON: Yes. And I could see that that anticipation—like there was another incident that occurred this morning where I had an interaction with my boss where she was very upset and frustrated with some things—not related to me, but related to some people that I work with and a project we had worked on. And what was interesting about it was that I felt much more removed from it, where it was more of an interesting experience than I would normally be as involved in it. But I could see that… You know, the question I had earlier was why am I creating these sort of things, and I think I’ve answered my question, is that there’s still, like that anticipation factor, there’s very subtle movements.
ELIAS: But you CAN see them, if you are paying attention.
JASON: Right. Possibly.
ELIAS: That is what I have expressed previously. You THINK you don’t see them, you THINK you don’t feel it, but you do. It is merely a matter of how you are paying attention.
If you are only paying attention to what that feeling begins to produce, such as the anticipation and then what it begins to produce, you notice that. You notice being uncomfortable or restless, and you don’t necessarily recognize that your behavior is changing, your energy is changing. Whatever you are doing begins to change, and you don’t necessarily notice that, because what you are paying attention to is that restlessness that is produced by that anticipation, or the disappointment, or whatever you express in response to that anticipation. You follow it with paying attention to the FEELING that occurs subsequent to that anticipation.
JASON: And then I’ll look to avoid it by distracting myself. (Laughs)
ELIAS: Correct. Yes. Or an individual might continue to pay attention to the feeling and allow the feeling to dictate their behavior for varying degrees of time.
JASON: One thing I noticed this morning was the frequency – and I’ve noticed this in the past, but it was just very, very clear – the frequency that I engage in what I call these inner conversations, often with you, where I have this running dialogue going on in my head. Is that…that’s anticipation? Or can be?
ELIAS: It CAN be. It is not automatically or it is not absolutely, but it can be.
JASON: It occurs with quite a bit of regularity (laughs) where I catch myself.
ELIAS: It is dependent on how you are doing that. Therefore, you could be incorporating some inner dialogue. Let us say that you are doing that in relation to myself. Now in that, you may be processing information, or you may be about to experiment in a direction or with an expression, or you may be anticipating. But it is not always an expression of anticipation.
JASON: Okay.
ELIAS: I would say many times it is more the former, in which you are processing information, you are evaluating, you are attempting to decipher different pictures of actions and situations and information, or you are attempting to apply some information, or you are experimenting with something.
JASON: Right. What’s the difference between knowing and believing?
ELIAS: Ah! That is an excellent question. Believing is an expression of what you trust. Now, initially that might sound or seem to be the same as knowing, or it may seem to be good. But what you trust is not always a benefit to you, or is not always accurate or valid.
Knowing is different. Knowing is that expression of certainty, not in absoluteness but in realness. It is a certainty in relation to any subject that does not include that piece of absolute. There is an openness in knowing. There is a certainty in the, let us say figuratively, the truth of what is known. But it is not black and white, and it is definitely not absolute, for knowing includes all of the branches of any subject, all of the probabilities, in a manner of speaking, and all of the angles.
Therefore, part of the knowing is knowing that there is not one answer, one direction, one expression for anything.
Believing generally does incorporate, to a degree, some factor of being definite or almost absolute, and there is a factor in relation to believing about rightness. Something is right, something is wrong, therefore there is an inclusion of duplicity in relation to what you believe. But WHATEVER you believe, there is always a factor of trust.
JASON: So if I know – or maybe I believe – that my car is where I parked it…
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: Which applies there?
ELIAS: You believe.
JASON: Believe.
ELIAS: That your car is where you parked it. Knowing, remember, allows for all possibilities and angles. Therefore, knowing would be an expression of you know your car exists and that it is LIKELY where you parked it, but it does exist in some physical space arrangement in your physical reality.
JASON: Okay.
ELIAS: That would be a knowing. You know that it exists.
JASON: Okay. I had a question about creating an intention, and this ties into some of your previous commentary where you said, “Intention is already manifest, therefore all that is required is for you to walk towards it and claim it.”
ELIAS: Correct.
JASON: This is consistent with what you’ve often told me, that that requires action. (Laughs)
ELIAS: Correct.
JASON: But if I think about some of the more unusual things that I’ve created or some of the things that I’ve created in the past—for example, my current job. They called me; I didn’t seek them out. Or the example of sitting on the airplane and drawing someone to sit next to you to have a friendly conversation with. Like, I didn’t take a particular action.
ELIAS: Ah, but you did. You may not have engaged the TYPE of action that you think about as being an action; therefore as you expressed, you did not seek out this particular job.
JASON: Right. Right. I understand where you’re going, because we did talk about this before. I’d like to dig into it in more detail.
ELIAS: Correct. But you DID seek it out. You merely did not necessarily in the types of actions that you identify or that you usually associate as being proactive, in a manner of speaking. You may not have engaged that type of action, but you did engage other actions.
And this is the piece about remembering that everything is interconnected. Therefore, you may not have generated what you think of as a proactive action in relation to this particular job. You may not have called someone or written to someone or interacted with another individual directly in relation to this particular job. But that does not mean that you did not seek it out and that you did not engage action.
It is a matter of genuinely remembering everything you do is interconnected. And in that, when you set an intention and you are engaging actions that are in harmony with that intention, you draw to yourself many different expressions and opportunities.
The key in that is what I have expressed to you previously about not expecting and not looking for but being open to, therefore being open to when you present yourself with an opportunity.
JASON: Right. But as far as the actual actions that I did, it was… So I had the intention, in both those examples. I do recall I had an intention. But the action that I did to implement it was, I guess, generating an energy of satisfaction without anticipation.
ELIAS: Correct. And expressing that in different actions in other situations and with other individuals. And you think automatically that they are unrelated, that they therefore are disconnected, but they are not.
This is the reason that when I express examples to individuals, I choose scenarios that most individuals would categorize as very different, that one could not possibly be related to the other.
JASON: Right.
ELIAS: Because it is not about the imagery. For every subject there are thousands and thousands of expressions of imagery. Imagery is abstract, and therefore there can be many, many, many, many different types of imagery for one subject.
In this, it is not the imagery that is so significant or important; it is the energy that is important. And the energy is reflective in what you do.
Therefore, if you are expressing actions in which you are appreciative or you are satisfied and you are moving in an easy direction, let us say, you may set an intention that you want to incorporate a new job with that criteria, so to speak, and, as I have expressed previously, you might be expressing the action of that in how you interact with your waiter at a restaurant, or walking your dog and interacting with strangers on the street in an amiable and satisfied and easy manner. It is that action of generating expressions that match your intention. The job is only ONE expression of imagery. It could be anything.
Therefore, if you are expressing that satisfaction, that easiness in everything else you are doing, or in many actions that you are doing, then it is very likely that you will present that type of opportunity to yourself, because you draw to yourself more of what you are already creating. What you are already paying attention to, you create more of.
JASON: Is my current energy a good example?
ELIAS: Yes!
JASON: Of what I should try to reproduce?
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: Okay. (Laughs) A question on… this was something that Lawrence had said. It was a great description of allowing with an intent. And it really makes it, the way he described it, it really helps address the trust issue too, because a lot of us couldn’t understand the idea that all probabilities, all experiences, all that already exists, and so if you think about the idea of moving probabilities, it is easier than if you’re trying to maybe do some of these actions in what you conceptualize as a physical, your physical world that you grew up in. (Chuckles) And it’s easier to trust that it can happen that way.
But basically that you allow yourself to move towards the experience, and with that allowance you view more choices at each moment. And as you expand the number of choices which you are aware of, then it becomes simpler for you to move in that direction.
ELIAS: Yes. I agree.
JASON: Can you maybe explain that a little bit? It’s a little where it’s conceptual but not experiential, but it doesn’t…
ELIAS: (Chuckles) All that is required as an example is anything that you have done that, in a manner of speaking, you take for granted because you don’t question it. You merely do it.
I would say—
JASON: I see. That was enough to give me examples. (Laughs) But go ahead.
ELIAS: Very well. What would your example be?
JASON: I had something that was wrong with our Christmas lights for a few days where I looked into it, was frustrated with it and left it alone and just figured out well, maybe it was broken. And then when I was quiet at one period, I thought well maybe at a later time and in a more allowing mode, more things that could possibly be a cause came to mind. And sure enough, it was something very easy to fix.
ELIAS: That is an excellent example. And when you are moving in a direction of allowing, when you engage those types of steps and you are doing in that direction, by giving yourself time and pausing, that is also doing. And in that, when you move in those directions, you do present more ideas to yourself.
I would say to you, you or anyone that has had the experience of let us say losing your keys…
JASON: Mm hm.
ELIAS: You lose your keys, and what you automatically do is retrace your steps and attempt to think what could you have done with them, and you look and you search and you incorporate considerable time looking and not finding. And generally, when you find them you will express that it was an accident that you found them and that they were in plain sight all the time, and you overlooked them and walked past them several times and didn’t see them.
In this, what is that expressing to you? What does that tell you? It is a grand metaphor. When you are looking, looking, looking, looking, you narrow your field of vision, and you narrow your choices. The only choice you have is to keep looking. When you stop looking, when you stop attempting to force the answer, then suddenly the answer appears. And suddenly you turn around and your keys are sitting in plain sight.
And all that time that you engaged looking, looking, looking, looking, looking, looking for your keys produced nothing but frustration and irritation and perhaps even panic. But what benefit did it do? And every moment of that, what were you doing? You were paying attention to what you don’t have and what you can’t find, and you create more and more and more of it. And when you eventually give up and throw up your hands in defeat, suddenly your keys appear, and it required no effort.
That is the difference between anticipating, expecting, looking for, and allowing.
JASON: Hmm. Yes. That anticipation is definitely a big part of that, because you’re automatically thinking of the repercussions and what you’re going to miss and…
ELIAS: Yes. Yes. Or what you will do or what you won’t do, and all of your choices hinge on that. But they don’t.
JASON: Right. Right.
ELIAS: But you think they do. And in this, this is an excellent metaphor for what I have expressed repeatedly in relation to BE OPEN TO BUT NOT LOOKING FOR.
JASON: You repeat that a lot, but I think I understand it. Maybe I’m not implementing it all the time. (Chuckles)
ELIAS: I would express that you gave yourself another piece associated with that this day.
JASON: Yes, a big piece.
ELIAS: Yes. In relation the anticipation. For the anticipation is part of the looking for.
JASON: Ah! Yeah. (Laughs)
So, on topics that are let’s call sensitive, which means that you’ve developed a lifetime of reactions to, or many years of reacting to, we’ve talked before about how you don’t need to do the experiential visualization; it’s simply the intention is all you need to create.
ELIAS: Correct.
JASON: But situations like money and stuff like that, that’s fine that you have the intention. The problem is that you have many habits of reacting. (Laughs)
ELIAS: Correct. Correct. And another piece of that is what you are setting as priorities. For when you are moving in directions, let us say with money, for this is such an excellent example, you set that as the priority. And in that, you set that as the intention – or you think you do – when in actuality that is not what you actually desire. That is a symptom.
JASON: Okay.
ELIAS: That (inaudible). And in that, when you are focused on that type of expression as being the priority, it interferes with the intention. Then you are not moving directly towards the intention and claiming it. You are moving through the labyrinth, because you are distracted.
JASON: Okay. Let’s give it more concrete terms. For example, this time of year is when the one year has ended and we’re just beginning the beginning of the new year, and most of my pay - or often the majority of my pay - comes as a one-time payment sometime over the next month or two. At the same time, we’re in an environment where the performance of a lot of banks, including ours, has been below expectations. And then you have tense interactions with the boss to throw in to boot, and so it comes up as a concern. (Laughs)
But I don’t necessarily have… Well, I do have things that I want to do with that money, but they’re not… Maybe help me think of a different way to conceptualize this that’s soothing. (Laughs) Soothe the doubts.
ELIAS: Very well. The first piece that I would express to you is stop believing that outside sources create parts of your reality. That this, in like manner to an intention, this is an expression that already belongs to you. It is already yours.
Therefore, it is not a matter of you being subject to or dependent on the bank or certain individuals. That is not the point. And if certain individuals are being reactive to outside sources, that does not concern you. If they choose to be uncomfortable and haggard because they are paying attention to those outside sources and giving that power and making themselves powerless, that is their choice.
Do you have to participate in that? No. Do you have to be reactive to that? No. Can you listen to that and also not be reactive and not be participating in it? Yes, you can, because of how you are directing your attention.
And in that, here is our subject of knowing and believing again. Knowing that you create your reality, every moment, every aspect of it, and believing that in relation to certain physical manifestations of your reality they already belong to you. Therefore, when you couple the knowing and the believing together, then you likely will create without the difficulty, without the concern, without the conflict. You will merely create it.
JASON: And the believing, that was the aspect that it already belongs to me?
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: And that is an action, so to speak, meaning you have to express that belief.
ELIAS: Yes. You are not only thinking it, –
JASON: Right.
ELIAS: --you believe it. You are expressing that. There is no doubt, because you KNOW that you create every aspect of your reality.
JASON: One of the interesting factors of that "Enough" exercise that we’ve been working with—
ELIAS: Yes?
JASON: — is that gets you practice with intentionally expressing a belief.
ELIAS: Yes. Yes, it does.
JASON: And so I think that that can be applied to a lot of other beliefs, including this one.
ELIAS: Yes, it can. I would very much agree. It is applicable in every direction with every subject.
JASON: Am I expressing it now?
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: Okay.
ELIAS: I would say to you that you have been expressing in that direction since that moment of realization about anticipation.
JASON: (Laughs) Yes. Because it totally… Everything changes, once your… Like you said, the perception changes. Everything else follows after it.
ELIAS: Correct. Your perception changes, your reality changes. For—
JASON: You could pick to choose the experience that you want.
ELIAS: Yes. And you choose what you feel.
JASON: Taking this further, one is that Lester had talked about reaching what he called an optimum state. It was basically an undoing of compulsive behavior or reactions, to where he called it that every thought or action was a choice.
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: And is that just from presence?
ELIAS: I would express for the most part, yes. That this is the point of being present, is that it gives you that awareness and that knowing that you are choosing, in every direction. You are choosing everything—every moment, every expression, every thought, every feeling. They are all choices.
Now; the sticky aspect of that, if you will, is whether you are aware of it or not. Regardless, you are doing it. But that is the expression that confounds so many individuals, and is so difficult for so many individuals, is that they are not aware of what they are choosing [emphatically] because they are not present. And therefore, yes, being present is a tremendous factor.
The more present you are, the more aware of your choices you become. And, as I have expressed repeatedly, it alters what is important to you. Just as becoming aware that you were expressing that anticipation [emphatically] before you expressed that, before you were aware of that, the anticipation was important. But once you were aware of what you were doing and the implication of that, it was no longer important. And it can change that quickly.
JASON: Right. Right. Because if you think you know what’s going to happen, you get focused on that without focusing on what you’re doing.
ELIAS: Correct. Correct. That is precisely correct.
JASON: And when I didn’t know what was going to happen, then I was free to (laughs) explore what I was doing.
ELIAS: Correct.
JASON: So did you help—
ELIAS: That is encapsulating in a very simple manner precisely the entire subject, is that factor of being aware that you have choices or you don’t. You don’t have choices when you are not aware. You do have choices when you are.
JASON: Was that you that helped provide that insight?
ELIAS: Yes. (Both laugh)
JASON: It was unusual in that I got an answer that quickly. (Both laugh)
ELIAS: Ah! But once again, I would express to you that it all occurred very quickly, and it all changed very quickly, and that is about being present and being genuine.
JASON: That’s great.
ELIAS: I would say to you, congratulations.
JASON: Thank you. (Elias laughs) So that topic of expressing the belief: things can get really interesting with it. And that does go back to where we had that conversation about perceiving myself as being taller.
ELIAS: Yes.
JASON: But that strikes me as that is the direct path, so to speak. That is the, I would imagine, the angle that Lester used.
ELIAS: I would agree. That is the combining of that knowing and believing, and being present. In that combination, my friend, you are invincible and the world is your oyster.
JASON: It’s a lot to absorb right now. (Both laugh) I had this lack of anticipation. I’ve had this occur a few instances in the past. But I remember them vividly because what would normally be very… like periods of waiting all of a sudden became very enjoyable.
ELIAS: Correct. And THAT is the magic of it all. That is the magic of perception, in that it actually does create your reality, and it can change in a moment. It can change instantaneously.
Does it usually? No. Why? Because the individual is holding to not the knowing but the believing, in directions that are not necessarily to their greatest benefit, and they are not being present.
But if you ARE being present, if you ARE moving in that direction with that knowing and that believing, your perception can change in the blink of an eye, and your reality changes when your perception changes.
JASON: And the knowing and the believing, in that example that you just gave, that is what?
ELIAS: It is a matter of whatever it is that you are engaging in the moment.
JASON: Okay. I just wanted to clarify. Okay.
ELIAS: (Laughs) I would express, my friend, I would incorporate the terminology of believing that your thought process is somewhat overwhelmed in this moment.
JASON: I know. I’m having trouble of even thinking of questions or…
ELIAS: I would express that the reality of what you did this day, the reality of that experience and the implications of that, began to be real.
JASON: I have been, and this has been percolating, is the idea that a lot of objective…like my life has generally gotten a lot smoother over the last year or so, and I’ve created a lot less negative—
ELIAS: I agree.
JASON: —events, but not a lot of the positives that I wanted to. Things are great. (Laughs) Don’t get me wrong. But not like some of the intentional stuff that I’ve been working at, and I feel like this is a key.
ELIAS: Correct. And this is a key. And the reality of that has actually hit you. (Laughs)
JASON: Yes. (Laughs) That’s fantastic.
ELIAS: It is far vaster than you expected. (Laughs)
JASON: And then it makes you so appreciative for the catalysts here, right? The angry phone call, the delay—it’s like those are the gems.
ELIAS: Much more so than you realize. You are correct. For they prompt you.
JASON: Right. Even without this insight, I was noticing that, like even with the phone call and stuff like that, even working on the idea of being more present and reacting less, those type of events are gifts in motivation, because you retain your power, you retain your dignity, you retain your choices when you don’t react. And it’s such a better way to live. (Laughs)
ELIAS: I agree. And I express to you, my friend, a tremendous congratulations, for this was a revelation. And you did it! (Laughs)
JASON: Thank you, Elias. I look forward to speaking to you again. Thank you very much.
ELIAS: You are very welcome, my dear friend. And I would express thank you for your sharing. And in that, relish this accomplishment, for it is definitely worth it. (Both laugh)
In tremendous lovingness to you and in great anticipation of our next meeting, au revoir.
JASON: Goodbye.
(Elias departs after 1 hour)
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