Personal Transformation – Breaking Perceptual Patterns by Learning the Lesson they Hold for You

Posted On August 23, 2017 / Written by Dr. Linda Gadbois

All of what we traditionally refer to as “karma†comes out of our mental paradigm that forms our perception of the outer world and ourselves in relationship with it (as the creator of it) as a personal creation or variation of a more Universal theme. This imagined reality as a form of “illusion†that used in place of the “actual reality†is formed out of memories that we use to create our experience of events through how we interpret them to make them mean something. The foundation out of which natural patterns arise as our perception of reality is our mental paradigm, formed by accumulated experiences that are integrated as memories, which are at once produced by us as a mental projection, and then reabsorbed to act as the means for upgrading and modifying it through new aspects of the same idea.

Patterns inherent in our mental model are projected onto new and unique situations (used to perceive them through) that have the same potential inherent in them (vibrate at the same frequency) as a potential reality, and acts to organize them into the same basic patterns as an archetypal theme or life drama. Although it’s of the same pattern as a theme being played out with new people and elements that forms a variation through the process of adaptation and natural selection that serves to modify it, and through a form of “feedback loop†as the perception of our own creation, we use it to modify our mental model by integrating the new and diversified information we acquire from it. Because of this natural process of simply repeating the same perceptions over and over, differing only by degrees and the qualities new players bring into the equation, evolution in the most basic sense, can be a very slow and gradual process where we not only play out the same dynamics throughout an entire lifetime, but often throughout several lifetimes.

These perceptual patterns produced by our own mind as an interpretation and engagement with outer elements that lend themselves to the same patterns, can be broken or dissolved when we employ spiritual knowledge and the tools it provides for practical forms of self-creation that greatly facilitate and aid our soul’s evolution causing a form of “quickeningâ€. Once we become aware of the fact that we are the ones creating how we experience others and the outer events of our life, and that these creations are the projection of our unconscious aspects playing out in our life without our direct awareness, and we “self-reflect†while engaged in them, we can come to recognize our own tendencies as patterns that we’re repeating. These patterns are dynamics of various sorts that act to play out dramas as story-lines that have a theme(s) inherent in them. These themes play out and give expression to underlying motives that shape and motivate all of our perception as an “interpretation†that forms the story we tell ourselves about them as the means of experiencing them, and creating ourselves by way of those experiences.

While we have a tendency to think that our perceptions are objective in nature and that we perceive others and our environment the same way everyone else is, in a neutral and unbiased fashion, the fact is our perceptions are formed out of our mind and are subjective in nature. This means that we’re creating a unique version of the same idea by abstracting only certain aspects, and organizing them in a way that matches our idea about it. We’re always remaking the objective, neutral outer world in our own image and with our likeness. We’re only capable of “seeing in others†what’s in us as a matching quality and characteristic. We form all of our interpretations of them based on the criterion inherent in our mental model as memory of some form, because our mind functions out of memory to run basic programs that create our experiences of the present to be the same as the past. We can only truly “see others†to the exact same degree that we can “see ourselves†in the other. All perception is projection of the subconscious mind as the perceptual lens formed by memories which produce the “illusion†of the outer world as being separate and a part from, and therefore independent of us. Yet, in fact, the outer reality as our perception of it is our own creation as an illusion that we superimpose over and use in place of the objective reality.

How we perceive ourselves creates the image we form of ourselves that only come from aspects of ourselves that we’re somewhat aware of, and exclude all aspects that we’re in denial of, have repressed and don’t “ownâ€, or even recognize ourselves as having because they’re purely unconscious in nature as part of our formative conditioning. So how we imagine ourselves to be in our own mind, can be very different than how we “actually areâ€, so when “we say we only see in others what’s in usâ€, we don’t know for sure what that means, because we honestly don’t see ourselves as being the same way or having the same qualities and traits of others. This basic ignorance as a lack of awareness of ourselves usually comes because we don’t realize that we’re not conditioned to or composed of individual qualities that we express in a singular fashion, but to whole dynamics as patterns that require multiple roles to play out, where each role embodies an opposite yet complementary quality.

We’re conditioned to “whole patterns” that are played out as stories based on themes. We naturally attract to people and situations that are composed of the same patterns we are, and who can play an active and complementary role in that same dynamic, and the conditions, circumstances, and situations that set the stage for it as a joint reality. We naturally enter into relationships with people and situations where the same ideas can be played out, providing us with the opportunity to realize our own part in it, and what it’s showing us about ourselves in terms of aspects of our self that are actively creating in our life at an unconscious level. We act to initiate and cooperatively participate by playing a complementary role in the same story-line, and unknowingly create all of our relationships (with others and environments) and experiences out of the natural projection of unconscious aspects that are reflected back to us through our outer awareness.

Once we realize this and take an attitude of looking at any judgment, dynamic, or relationship as showing us parts of ourselves operating without our direct awareness, we can “learn the lesson†inherent in the experience. All lessons in this case is learning something new about ourselves and why we do what we do, so that we no longer need to “project it†onto others and our environment in order to see it. Once we realize whatever it is about ourselves that the situation is serving to reflect back to us, and through the realization of it, own and embrace it, we “heal†that aspect of ourselves as an unconscious impulse, and just through the awareness of it, we perceive the ability to choose. Once we know something, we can’t not know it. Once we see something about ourselves, we become aware anytime we’re engaging in it, and again, through awareness alone, the pattern is dissolved and no longer acts to hypnotize us. Once we see the truth, which is what the lesson is, we no longer unconsciously and automatically participate in creating it. We heal that unconscious complex in ourselves by integrating both the conscious (aware) and unconscious (unaware) aspects of the same mind, unifying it as the same perspective and perception, and we no longer act to project and perceive it outside of ourselves.

In this sense all true healing, which is of the mind, comes through self-awareness and realization based on that awareness. The entire outer world is created as a combination of known and unknown aspects of ourselves. The known ones we are conscious of expressing in an intentional and deliberate manner, the unknown ones we experience as “happening to us†or as the qualities and traits of others that we have a distinct “reaction to†and naturally enter into relationship with based on that reaction. The qualities, traits, and behaviors that others possess that stand-out and produce an immediate effect in us occur through resonance. This effect as a reaction (cause and effect) comes from resonance where we’re being vibrated by the same frequency outside of us.

The inner and the outer of the same frequency exist in polarity to each other as a relationship of complementary opposites that play opposite roles in creating the same idea. We only know ourselves in relation to and contrast with others. To perceive ourselves as “good†we have to position ourselves in direct contrast to “badâ€. Good is defined by how it differs from bad. Yet both exist as opposites of the same idea, separated only by degrees necessary to stimulate and call forth its complementary opposite through an active state. So in order to see ourselves as good, we naturally attract to, notice, and interact with what we perceive as “bad†in order to create an experience of ourselves as “good†in comparison by aligning with and bringing into expression (acting as a channel for) what we imagine and consider to be the opposite qualities and character traits that make us “goodâ€.

Our “theme†as a drama that’s played out through various relationships is a story about “good and badâ€, where, depending on what role the other one naturally takes on, we play the complementary role, except when we play the “opposite roleâ€, in this scenario of being “badâ€, we don’t totally realize what we’re doing while employing the same “behavior†as what we normally call bad, because we’re telling ourselves a different story about why we’re doing it that makes it “seem goodâ€, or in defense of ourselves as actually being good. So the “reason†that justifies and explains the action changes, but the action itself is the same. Again, same behavior, different interpretation.

Whatever pattern as a life theme and emotional drama we’re conditioned with, we can and do play every role in the drama, but only some roles consciously and other roles unconsciously. We judge others in the same way we were judged, but when we’re the one doing the judging we can justify and therefore prove them to be true, and when we’re being judged in the same way that we judge others, we disown and argue against having those traits. Or, we retaliate and judge them back in the same manner they’re judging us as more of a means of “giving them back their own medicine†(like begets more of what’s like it), which again, is the “same act†being justified and validated by a different reason.

When we realize that our judgments of others as “value judgments†(where we assign qualities and characteristics to them that they’re not outwardly demonstrating as a generic interpretation that makes them into a certain type of person) is a basic form of how we “don unto others what was done unto usâ€, and we self-reflect on the true nature of our perception of them and how that relates to our own experiences incurred during our formative conditioning, we can come to realize how we suppressed and went into denial about having those qualities, and we developed arguments against them as a self-defense mechanism that was designed to convince even ourselves that we don’t have them (because that would mean something terrible about us).

Being rejected as a kid for not being “good enough†somehow, causes us to judge others in the same way so we can contrast ourselves against them, making ourselves seem better than them, justifying our right to reject them based on the same reason we were rejected while exonerating ourselves. Again, the act of judging and rejecting are the same, only the reason and perspective is different. While we identify first with being the child in that idea, and being the one whose innocently being judged and rejected, as we grow into adults, we continue playing out that same dynamic while identifying with and taking on the role of the adult, where we now are the one doing the judging and rejecting. Likewise, a child that grows up being abused, as an adult, becomes the abuser and abuses others in the same way they were abused. And if their abusive behavior is identified objectively and pointed out, they deny having it by justifying it due to the fact that they were abused. All of this is done, usually without realizing what’s happening, and why.

Once we gain the capacity of the mind to self-reflect and become aware of our own tendencies, and where and why we acquired them, while recognizing what’s motivating our behavior as feelings and emotions that produce urges and impulses, we can resolve them just through the awareness itself. The only thing that keeps tendencies playing out as a major life theme that produces our reality, and our experiences as that reality, is our lack of awareness to the fact that we’re the one producing them while playing a key role in the dynamic itself. By realizing that we’re the one who’s creating all of our perceptions, born out of both conscious and unconscious aspects of ourselves, we can learn how to sense and recognize the “feeling pattern†that’s playing out in things. Once we realize our own part as the creator of our experiences by way of the events of our life, which are always showing us both conscious and unconscious aspects of ourselves, and we use all of our situations to become self-aware of our own hidden aspects, we dissolve the pattern of habitual perceptions that hold us captive to an illusion of our own making, and are free to create in a fully awake and intentional manner.

Dr. Linda Gadbois

Transpersonal Psychologist, Mind-Body Health Consultant, and Spiritual Teacher