The unbearable lightness of believing

Judging by the amount of visits (and a few emails) the previous post created a minor stir.

Good.
That was its purpose.

Still, I feel it's worth elaborating on just little bit further.

If a visitor from another planet (let's say many regions in Africa where there is no internet, not to mention some other essential commodities) took a virtual stroll around the WWW (or any library), one of the first things s/he would notice would probably be the overabundance of links, websites, articles, books containing the following tags/keywords: LOA, law of attraction, manifesting, reality creation... and so on.

Assuming s/he knew what they mean, s/he could be forgiven for thinking either that we are a race of turbo manifesters... or that we aren't. Especially that we aren't. People usually look for what they DON'T have.

Everyone seems to KNOW the principle underlying the recent deluge of The Secret-emulators (The Secret, naturally, being nothing but an emulation- and not really a very accomplished one - itself).
And yet presses are spewing out ever new batches of books hammering the same idea under many different names even as we speak.

Why?

Well, the answer is rather obvious, but to illustrate it let me quote a real post, typical of the mentality underlying this abundance of books on abundance:


"I was looking for a book akin to [insert name of any "manifestation" guru, past or present] when I came across [as above]."


Why?

If this person was looking for a book akin to a certain other book, then it's safe to assume s/he liked that first book.
Why, then, did s/he need yet another book telling her basically the same things as the first one?

Either because s/he was not convinced - or because it didn't "work".

Why, then, look for more of the same?

Because this reader - and millions like him or her - is missing the one key (the ignition key!) that makes it all work and without which none of it can work.

FAITH

If you read carefully - or even diagonally, I suppose - through all the books, articles and websites about "reality creation", you may notice that they all talk about the same thing, offering only variants, ever different approaches to CONVINCE yourself about the efficacity of having faith.
In other words, they are offering you methods to build faith in that having faith really works.

And none of them seem to work (except for a silent minority, I suppose).

If people really believed in their own power to co-create reality, no such books would have been needed for the past 2000 years - the approximate time that has elapsed since the following words - among many others - were written for everyone to hear:

"Nothing is impossible to him who believes"

Is there a clearer, more explicit declaration of man's power - and right - to co-create reality, to achieve even the seemingly "impossible"?

No.
It's the essential idea that all "manifestation" books harp on, minus the tacky media marketing, the airy-fairy writing and the price tag.

But then, even Peter - the exemplary everyman (surely you don't think he was chosen as the first "pope" because he was such an outstandingly bright disciple, do you...?) - even Peter himself could not believe. He SAW Christ do mind-boggling miracles, he HEARD him (Him, not some priest) tell him again and again that he, Peter, could do anything Christ could - and more!
Heck, he even mustered enough faith to walk on water... until he remembered he "could not" do it and started to sink.

"You of little faith," said Christ, "why did you doubt?"

Indeed: why?*
Why did Peter doubt his ability to walk on water even after seeing that clearly he COULD do it?

Why do you?

Think about it until you get a clear answer as to whether you can believe - or not. Because if you don't, you might as well give the money (and time) you invest in "manifestation" books, CDs, DVDs and what-not, to charity. Or flush it down the drain, whichever you prefer.

On the bright side, you can start walking on water right NOW.
All you need to do is have faith in faith. Not rational, mental understanding or even "conviction" - no, I mean FAITH.

With it, nothing is impossible.
Without it, no technique will help you. Ever.



* Answer coming up soon.
As soon as you have thought about it yourself.