Create your own reality

"People are lost, thinking they can create their own pathway, by borrowing from this or borrowing from that. But only God knows the way to return. You cannot create your own way, based upon human preference and human admonition."

"You may project any ideas upon the future—your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your anxieties. You may paint a happy picture or a frightening picture for yourself. But life is moving. It is not dominated or even affected by your projections."

A separate reality

"God has given you a greater purpose for being in separation, to replace your initial purpose for being in separation, which was to be separate, to be distinct, to be a god in your own Universe, to create your own reality. And you are still trying to do this. You validate that which is unique about you. You accentuate that which is unusual about you, that which is particular about you, spectacular about you, and unique. Even in your self-criticism you emphasize that which sets you apart."

"If you were to evaluate your desires for the world, or what you think the world must have, you would find that your ideas are not founded on reality, and there are many problems with them. Therefore, it is best to set aside your preferences, which are all based upon your own fears—the fear of not having, all the catalog of fears. Your reaction to them is to create a catalog of preferences, desires and requests. You call this the truth, or your philosophy. But it is all based on fear, you see. That is why if you are truly honest with yourself, in a moment of real sobriety, you would see that you do not know what you want for the world, and that your grand ideas and your hopes and your dreams and your preferences would themselves create incredible conflict and difficulty for others if these things were implemented. If you are desiring only, then you only see what you want and you do not see what really is there. That is the blindness of desire, the blindness of trying to base your life on your preferences without really examining them and understanding that they are a response to fear within yourself."

"People cannot experience Knowledge because they are preoccupied with thoughts and judgments. These thoughts and judgments create a self-enclosed world for an individual, a self enclosed world where they cannot see out. They can only see the content of their thoughts and this colors their experience of life entirely, so much so that they cannot see life at all."

The Mental Environment of Thought and Influence

"There are some people who believe that everything that happens to them is the result of their own creativity, however misguided. But what they fail to see is that everyone else has created their reality too, and that the impact in the mental environment—the environment of thought and influence—is so much immensely greater by what everyone else is creating than what you individually can create, that to think that you can produce all these results for yourself simply by directing the will and the power of the mind is to ignore the will and the power of all other minds. This assumption then certainly reinforces and is based on the belief in separation. It does not take into account the effect that minds have on one another. It does not recognize the impact and the influence of the mental environment. Though it may proclaim that everyone has the potential to recreate their experience, it does not take into account the fact that the mental environment is completely dominating for most people, to the point where very few people even have original thoughts. They are simply recycling all the influence that they are absorbing and have been absorbing since the day they were born. And because human beings are essentially social creatures, they will always tend to associate with whatever group they identify with, whatever group they think is giving them promise, purpose, meaning and security."

Reality Greater Than Your Thoughts

"So, when people say, 'You create your own reality,' what does this mean? It is only meaningful in the realm of your own thoughts. It assumes, if you think about it, that there is no reality beyond your own thoughts. In the beginning—the very beginning—people are told, 'You create your own reality. You must change your thoughts to have a different reality.' Isn’t that what you have read? Yet, this is only a first step. This requires that you look at your thoughts to see how fully involved with them you really are.There is reality beyond your thoughts. In fact, beyond your thoughts is the only reality because your thoughts can only interpret. There is a reality within you that actually creates, but it is entirely beyond your mind. If your mind is open and has become balanced and whole, then the reality that creates can create through you.That is the greatest experience of satisfaction and fulfillment in the world."

"What difference do your thoughts make, except to either cloud or clarify your perception? It is not a question of creating your own reality, for people use that to build, they think, a better fantasy, to replace the miserable one they are living in now. But fantasies are miserable if you attempt to live them because they are not in accordance with reality or Knowledge within yourself. And the more you invest, the more hazardous your life becomes and the more you are afraid of the world."

Reality Greater Than Your Preferences

"YOU HAVE THOUGHT IN THE PAST that all things exist because you wanted them to. This is only true in the realm of imagination, a realm that you are learning now to escape. Even in the realm of imagination, you learn to value that which is closest to the truth so that you may escape the realm of imagination. For the realm of imagination is not the realm of Creation. What creates, creates from Knowledge. This is Creation that is permanent, meaningful and has true power and value even in the world. It is not the realm of imagination."

"Who you are and what you are here to do are directly related to what the world is and what the world needs. People do not understand this because they think that they are creating their own reality, and so their idea of Higher Purpose is what they would ultimately like to do, the thing that would be the most fun and enjoyable. But your Higher Purpose will never be found in this because you must re-establish relationship with life to find your purpose here. There is no purpose in the world of imagination. Though you may devote all of your life and all of your resources to trying to be, do and have what looks most appealing, you are in fact designed for something else. When you come to that threshold where you want to give yourself to others and give yourself to life, when you realize that you cannot fulfill yourself alone and that there is no fulfillment in a self-determined life, then you will hear your Spiritual Family, and the Unseen Ones will come close to you, for you are waking from a long and troubled dream. Then the power of the universe will respond to you, for you are responding to it."

"If God did not love you and love creation, God would let you suffer indefinitely. 'Ah, well, let them suffer indefinitely. They want to be foolish? Let them be foolish. They want to suffer? Let them suffer. They want to create their own reality? Good. Create your own reality. Here. You can imagine anything.' But God not only wants to rescue you, God wants to fulfill you, for you must give yourself to a situation that is fundamentally harmful and difficult."

Correct application in practice

"When you hear others talking about 'creating their own reality,' see this only as a sign pointing in the right direction. What this means for you is that you must take responsibility for the content of your mind. What are you thinking at this moment? What you are thinking is relevant to what you are experiencing . This is accurate. But beyond this is reality, and that is the great gift. Achieving this, then, is more a settling down than a building up. It is the result of becoming still and observant so that you can penetrate your own interpretation."

"Much of the fear that you experience moment to moment is simply a matter of your own creation, your own negative imagination. But, then, there is fear that is born of the violation of Knowledge. This is more a discomfort than a fear, for it rarely carries with it any kind of imagery at all, though ideas can come into your mind as a form of warning should you be attempting a behavior or a line of thinking that is dangerous or destructive. Fear that is born of negative imagination comprises the vast majority of the fear with which you entertain yourself. This you must learn to counteract, for it is an inappropriate use of your mind. Here you create an experience for yourself, experience it and then call it reality. Meanwhile, you have not been present with life at all. You have merely been in fantasy within yourself. "

See also

Projection

Reality

Further study

• Steps to Knowledge, Step 31: I wish to see a world I have never seen before.
• Steps to Knowledge, Step 51: Let me recognize my fears so that I may see the truth beyond them.
• Steps to Knowledge, Step 67: I do not know what I want for the world.
• The Gift (March 31, 2007)