(This is Part 12 of a continuing series. Go back to Pt 11.)
6. The Principle of Frequency
This principle is expressed in the phrase like attracts like.
Another way of putting it is embodied in the folk-wisdom, "Birds of a feather flock together."
One element of the principle is that at all times we are radiating at a certain frequency. Whether we're happy or sad, jealous or grateful, we're radiating that frequency into the universe—and attracting that same frequency.
We might say, "Frequencies of a feather flock together." Whatever frequency we're radiating at is also the frequency where we're attracting.
An elementary example of this is if we go out into the street one day feeling angry and snarling about something. Everyone we meet that day we act angry and reactive with. What do you think we'll get back? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that we're going to get back what we're putting out—anger, reactiveness, criticalness, etc.
On the other hand, let's imagine that we just fell in love and we go out one day with joy in our heart. Everything seems fresh and radiant to us and we treat other people with great love and caring. What do you imagine we'll get back? Of course, we'll experience the world as very loving and caring that day.
Notice that it's the same world that appears both reactive and caring, angry and loving. It all depends on what we're putting out there, what "frequency" we're vibrating at.
If there are some tuning forks in a room and we vibrate one of them, those tuning forks of the same frequency will also vibrate; the others will not. This is one aspect.
The second aspect of this principle is that the frequency where we're vibrating also determines the "lens" through which we're perceiving reality.
Reality is what it is. But we humans tend to see what we want to see, we tend to find what we're looking for. We perceive the world through the perceptual filters that are set up in our mind.
These filters, which we can call "beliefs" or "stories," do not look like filters or beliefs or stories to us. They look like "the truth," like "reality" to us, because the interpretation of what we see is determined by the lens, the perceptual filters, through which we're looking.
A third aspect of this principle is that we tend to become what we consistently put our attention on. Whatever we habitually think about, talk about, dream about is what we more and more come to resemble.
If we think about money all day long we'll become money-obsessed. Whether we grasp at it or avoid it depends on our thoughts about it, but the vibration will be the same. Similarly, if we feel love in our hearts every day we'll come to embody that love more and more.
Every emotion is driven by a certain style of thinking. The way we stay angry at someone is by continually recycling angry thoughts and stories about them in our mind. The way we stay anxious about something is by continually recycling anxious thoughts and stories about it, and so on.
These three aspects mean that, over time, each of us collects more and more evidence that we're "right" about whatever it is that we think we're right about. We all go to our deathbeds knowing how "right" we were.
And our sense of what is "right" or "true" is determined in turn by where we're putting our attention every day, by what we're thinking about and focusing on each day. Or to use a different metaphor, by what we're "feeding" to our mind every day.
If, for example, we spend a lot of time reading political magazines, listening to political talk radio and so on, we're going to see the world more and more through a political lens. We become what we focus on.
In this sense, the universe is very compliant. It goes our way. It's a responder. If we approach the universe is a condemnatory or resentful way, for instance, the universe will support us in that. It will show us an angry world. And we'll be "right" about that because we'll pile up so much evidence for it.
We're creating our own version of reality all the time. The question isn't, "Are we going to manifest a version of reality?" because we're all really good at that already. The question is, What are we going to manifest? What is our reality going to be like and feel like?
Another way of expressing this is that existence is a wonderful mirror to our consciousness. It "reflects" back to us whatever we put out, whatever we radiate. And this reflection is non-judgmental; existence is not judging us, but simply reflecting what's there. It's not aggressive enough to "force" us to be happy.
And we cannot judge the mirror of existence by the appearance of externals. Simply because someone is wealthy or powerful does not mean that they're happy. The two are not related.
To be abundant is to be internally abundant. If we're not internally abundant we're not abundant at all. Conversely, the doors of heaven can open regardless of our situation or circumstances. The kingdom of heaven is within you,
as Jesus so accurately put it.
And then, when we're already discovered heaven within our own heart, the doors of external existence seem to open as well and we move out into a reality that seems, right in the midst of its beautiful and tragic dualities, to shimmer in its goodness and love.
Then we understand too that our consciousness, and its reflection in reality's mirror, are of course only two faces of the same phenomenon, shining from within our everyday life.
(This is the end of Part 12. Go to Part 13.)
—jim sloman, 12.27.03 for Jun 13
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