We Don't Know What We Don't Know
Another Extract from my forthcoming book: "WordWeavers and SpellCasters"
The concept is simple; the engagement of it and enaction of it can be slightly trickier. Fundamentally you don’t know what you don’t know and in addition to this, you usually think you know what you know and never dispute it with the self!
This convolution we do whereby we have certain fundamental truths that we never investigate and yet we don’t know what we don’t know, means that it is very common for us to be believing something that is not true and yet never questioning that belief, whilst at the same time not believing something that is true, and being quite convinced in our superiority over those that believe this thing we call ‘nonsense’ because it is in our belief system ‘not true’.
We then continuously validate the lack of questioning or investigating around the belief. Said questioning or investigating might prompt the discovery that what we believe is in fact not as true or false as we have firmly decided. If something we believe is not true is in fact true, then this internal self-perpetuating belief system will, in one way or another, deter us from hearing, investigating or taking on board any evidence to the contrary of the currently held belief. The opposite is also true, if we believe something that is true, we may spend our time being blinded to all evidence that it is in fact not true. We are complicated creatures, with many blind spots, and an overall compulsion to ‘not look foolish’ and ‘to be correct’ – mostly these compulsions come from a fundamental desire for or orientation towards feeling safe in one way or another.
What we tend to do, once we’ve made a decision, is to never investigate whether our belief systems or foundational decisions about life are still true or not true. We simply dismiss as fallacy or nonsense anything that doesn’t align with our currently held beliefs and get on with engaging with life from the point of view of that which we believe to be true. There are two mechanisms within that dictate our view of life and our engagement with life, these two mechanisms could be referred to as belief systems and programs.
Belief Systems
Belief systems are those mechanisms that dictate what we believe to be true or not true, they dictate our engagements with life and what we can see or focus upon and what we cannot. Think of it as akin to the experience of buying a car, before you researched and decided upon the type of car you liked, you rarely noticed them on the road, but then you decide you want a certain type of car and suddenly you see them everywhere. Those cars were always there, you just weren’t focusing on them before and so they operated in your peripheral awareness not your specific focus.
Belief systems are like this, whereby they operate in silence in your system, dictating how you view or engage with life, telling you what you think is good or bad, what you think is moral or not, what you think is possible or not. Not all belief systems are bad and not all are good – but mostly the ones that give people issues are those that could be termed ‘limiting belief systems’ these are the belief systems that limit your experience of life in certain areas, these are the ones that don’t allow for investigation or new information to enter your field of view or tolerance levels for certain behaviours, actions, experiences, life circumstances.
Limiting Belief Systems
Belief systems are formed by experiences and childhood. Some of them can be really wonderful and life enhancing! If you were raised in a circumstance where you were very happy and you experience your parents and community being kind to each other and sharing and caring about each other then you may have formed the belief system that kindness begets kindness – and this belief system may have served you well through life. However, if you were raised in a family where you were ridiculed and humiliated for being kind and sharing, because the family belief system was that kindness is weakness and sharing is what victims do, because if you have something you defend it and try to get more of it, that’s what winners and survivors do! Then you may find that amongst other humans in your engagements through work or society your attitudes and actions tend to repel people. Your belief system is not helping you make friends or connections that may help you get ahead in life. This would be an example of an unhelpful perhaps damaging belief system that is limiting your ability to find happiness and peace. This is often called a limiting belief system.
Programs
Programs as compared to belief systems are often more deeply ingrained and can be practically invisible to you as a program and is often thought of as ‘just the way life is’. They are often things that are completely unquestioned and seem to make sense logically and are often backed by your schooling and those around us. Again, not all programs are bad! And in fact, some of them seem so logical and backed by science that there is no evidence at all that they are ‘wrong’ or ‘untrue’, but they are still ways that we think of as true and hence they are programs. Programs usually come from family and schooling, not necessarily experiences. If you have been raised catholic then one of your programs will be strongly oriented towards sin and the badness of self for sinning, but if you weren’t raised catholic you may actually view ‘sin’ as just a ‘good time’ since ‘sin’ is not something that you operate from as a base program of self.
Generally, programs and belief systems dictate the way you view life and engage with life. Their precise definition can be a bit fluid whereby to one person it is a program but to another it is a belief system, but both of them, in tandem, tend to form your limitations in possibilities, and what you believe life is and isn’t, as well as your ability to engage with and change that. Ultimately the first port of call in any area you wish to change in your life, is to address the belief system and/or program that you hold that does not allow you to have sovereignty and make the changes in your life that you desire.
What does this mean? It means that you are your first limitation, and your ability to, willingness to and dedication to changing the belief systems and programs that prevent you being in mastery of your own thoughts, actions, and words will dictate your ability to be sovereign and to master your life and upshift it into that which you would term successful, joyful and peaceful.