Breaking Free from the Tyranny of Beliefs: A Revolution in Consciousness

Copyright © 2012 Lark Aleta Batey

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Balboa Press rev. date: 02/23/2012

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A NEW BEGINNING

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I dedicate this book to

the memory of my grandmother, LYDIA JANE ORTEGA

Who taught me to question and to think for myself

&

My husband Bob: you kept your vow to be

the protector of my solitude

Thank you

Without your support this book could not have been written

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I gratefully pay homage to many courageous teachers and authors for their contribution to my awakening. It is not easy to go out on the proverbial limb to present material that cuts against the grain of mass belief systems. I have been on this journey for many years and have been inspired by many along the way too numerous to mention.

I wish to give special attention and thanks to a few who have profoundly guided and inspired my journey:

To Seth who through Jane Roberts and Robert Butts provided life changing information to a generation hungry for a different point of view

To Lazaris who taught me how to explore the inner worlds and opened me up to the intense richness that lives within and taught me how to dream once more

To Leslie Temple-Thurston who through her gentle and loving teachings introduced me to the possibility of what enlightenment could be like

To the teachers of the Crimson Circle channeled by Geoffrey Hoppe who have taken us step by step through the process of examining and letting go of all that is superfluous and helped us to understand what is really important

To Moonyeen Park who through yoga taught me how to appreciate my body

To Dr. Richard Bartlett for the profound gift he has brought to this world

To friends and family who have been open to reading parts of this book and commenting—thank you for your willingness to indulge my need to share and discuss

Thank you to my husband Bob for being willing to help me with the editing of this book

INTRODUCTION

Tyranny: despotism, domination, suppression, oppression, coercion, cruel authority, harshness, totalitarianism—these synonyms for tyranny describe what can happen when a tribe, a nation, an alliance, a religion, an interest group or a political group gives a way of thinking and perceiving—a belief system—absolute, unquestioning power.

Beliefs are an unavoidable part of the human experience. It is apparent that conflicting beliefs exist in this world side by side, and from a collection of beliefs entire cultures are created. Those living in a particular belief system perceive the world in a way unique to that mindset.

Our world is full of a diversity of beliefs, customs, foods, religions, laws, etc. Each cultural group agrees to live by certain rules and customs, and those who deviate from those rules and customs are looked upon as outsiders within that culture. They can even be punished or executed for their deviations from the accepted norm. That is how much power humankind has given belief systems.

The fact that there are so many diverse belief systems in this world, beliefs that often contradict each other, and the fact that each belief system sets the tone for the lives circumscribed by it, should give us some clues about their origin.

Humankind has created belief systems for as long as we have inhabited this planet. We create beliefs when we set down laws that govern mercifully or inhumanely depending upon the lawmakers and their agendas.

We perpetuate belief systems through our families and our schools as children are trained to think and respond to the culture they are born into. We force beliefs on children about themselves when we classify and categorize them, expect them to conform to everything that they are taught, and drug or chastise or ostracize those who won’t comply or who think differently.

At the very foundation of all belief systems lies an undercurrent of religious influence. Religion is the fountain from which all or most belief systems spring. We cannot explore the subject of beliefs without addressing the influence of religion on our collective belief systems. Religions are perhaps the strongest threads of influence to be pervasively woven through the tapestry of our collective world view. In order to effectively understand the origins of our belief systems, we need to examine those threads and the impact they have had on our entire worldview.

We grow up indoctrinated into religious belief systems that were formed at some distant point in history and are taught that they are the unwavering, immutable truth. In all areas of our lives we are taught what we believe about our world and about ourselves. Does that make those beliefs true? Can we dare to scrutinize them and challenge them, or must they always be accepted without question?

Our history is full of gruesome examples of those who challenged the status quo of the day. Our news is also full of violent examples of the effects of extreme religious beliefs. It is considered by many to be heretical to challenge religious beliefs, but if we are ever to move outside the boxes of beliefs we are trapped in and into an enlightened state of consciousness, challenge we must.

We are at a pivotal time in history where it is crucial to examine the deep seated hold our belief systems have on us and be willing to revolutionize our beliefs in order to survive as a civilization. Each individual must become consciously aware of his or her personal core beliefs and question those that they have outgrown or are clearly destructive or unnecessarily limiting.

Do beliefs create reality? And if they do, can we change them? I give a resounding yes to the first question and a qualified yes to the second. I think that we are so deeply boxed in by what I call a core belief matrix that is at the foundation of our collective belief systems that we remain locked in a paradigm of limited thinking prohibiting us from making deep and lasting change. As long as we are unconsciously controlled by this matrix of beliefs, we cannot allow ourselves to indulge in the exotic banquet of ideas available to us. Our world view prohibits us from perceiving different ideas offered to us or giving them credibility even if we do become aware of them.

Cultural transformation is a gradual process that unfolds one person at a time. When we examine the world view we personally hold by becoming aware of our own subconscious patterning and belief systems and give ourselves permission to question what we find within ourselves, we become empowered to change what doesn’t ring true in our lives and embrace and develop what does.

As we modify our beliefs and patterns of behavior, we change the way we interact with those who are close to us, causing shifts in their lives, and that process creates a ripple effect. A different resonance is created that attracts people and events that are compatible with it and that also contributes to changes as new people with new ideas come into our lives.

Each personal transformation contributes to a shift in the collective consciousness. Individuals can and do make a huge difference in this way.

This time in human history has been designated as the end of the world by some belief systems. I along with many others share a view that there is an end, but it is the end of the world being run by forces set into motion by belief systems that are hundreds, maybe thousands of years old that have been altered and misinterpreted over and over again. Evolving humanity is outgrowing these belief systems. A deeper understanding of our reasons for being on this earth is rapidly being made available to those ready to hear, and the information that will help us with that understanding is right under our noses.

In the United States we have the gift of freedom of speech and expression, and we have access to almost any information we care to research.

We live in an extraordinary time in human history where we have access to a large body of metaphysical/esoteric material as well as alternate versions of our religious history. Throughout history this material has been uncomfortably ignored and/or blatantly suppressed by those who have been in positions of authority as it would drastically affect the power of their established institutions.

The ideas I will be discussing and elaborating on in this book are taken from this sumptuous banquet of exotic food for thought offered to us by courageous individuals willing to face ostracism and ridicule in order to bring it to us. It is time these largely untapped and often suppressed resources are examined and experimented with, and any legitimacy that exists in the material is utilized.

I will also be referring to research that brings alternate accounts of important historical events to the reader’s attention. It is essential to recognize how easily the individual and the masses can be manipulated and controlled through the establishment of belief systems by those who are vying for power.

Some of this material talks of a New Energy that is becoming active upon the planet. This Energy, focused and utilized by humans aware of it, has the potential of changing the world in a profound way. I believe this Energy and the transformation it can stimulate in individuals may be the next step in the evolutionary process of humankind. Throughout the course of this book, I will be talking about what I think this New Energy is and how we might utilize it.

I think it is the impact of this New Energy that allows us to come to realizations about our belief systems that for centuries went unquestioned. This is the new frontier in human evolution, and it is on the leading edge of the consciousness revolution, as each of us learns to understand that we, through our thoughts and intentions and dreams and desires, have the power to re-create the world we live in.

Until now, the idea of consciousness expansion has been the exclusive arena of those interested in esoteric ideas and mystical studies unreachable and largely unavailable to the lay person. Science is now able to explain many concepts that once were only available to the mystic, and we are growing to understand that we individually and collectively have more potential and latent abilities than we could ever have believed. With the explosion of information available to the masses, we have the tremendous opportunity and responsibility to access this information and understand it and utilize it. How do we access and utilize this information?

When I initially set out to write this book, my quest was to answer that question for myself. I wanted to see the step-by step process I was experiencing. It was an exercise to help me articulate and organize the ideas so that I could work with them on increasingly deeper levels. Once I began putting all of this together, it took on a life of its own, and I knew I had something that could be of benefit to others.

The ideas presented in this book are suggesting that we take a long hard look at the belief systems we hold and provide references, ideas, tools, and exercises for scrutinizing and sorting through them. The process by default will stimulate different questions. This is crucial, because we won’t arrive at new answers and solutions until we change the questions.

That is not to say that new questions are not being asked and new solutions being found. They are, and beliefs in the Collective Consciousness are already shifting. Are they shifting fast enough and in enough people to make a difference? The global crises we struggle with would point to a negative answer at this juncture in time. On the other hand, anytime there is change on the horizon, people go into fear mode and create resistance to that change, struggling fiercely to maintain the status quo. From that point of view, the vicious resistance we are seeing to change today would point to the force of change being quite active and possibly more effective than we might imagine.

There is mounting data that the westernized civilizations of this world have created a technological nightmare that cannot sustain itself indefinitely if we continue to use our natural resources at the present rate. Yet many are resisting any modifications that will infringe upon the use of those resources because of the multi-million dollar corporations and businesses built around those technologies.

A beloved teacher once said that we have to get outside the set in order to see what the set is all about. We cannot make changes as long as we are living within the set, because we are locked into the beliefs of that set. We have to be willing to suspend our beliefs for a time and take a bird’s eye view of the direction those beliefs have taken us. This book is an attempt to take that flight outside the set humanity has been trapped in for millennia.

The same beloved teacher mentioned above once said that we cannot build a new world on the old foundation; we have to create a new floor. That thought has stuck with me for many years as I have pondered what a new floor might look like. I think it has to start with new core beliefs. We cannot generate new core beliefs, however, until we are able to identify our current core beliefs and understand where the limitations and fallacies lie.

Throughout this work, I will present some of the ideas, tools, and questions that have helped me examine my core beliefs and drastically revise my world-view of what is possible. I will share some of my own experiences as examples, as well as the experiences of others who are involved in the process of challenging and changing their realities as guidelines and suggestions of possibilities.

This book will explore how we came to live in our unconsciously perpetuated Core Belief Matrix. This Matrix was generated from a ruthless and brutal past. I offer ideas of how we can begin to create a new foundation of beliefs by becoming fully conscious of what holds us emotionally, spiritually and psychologically captive. Once identified, we can reject and/or modify those beliefs that no longer serve us or humanity.

Through identifying the beliefs that hold this Matrix in place, we will touch on fundamental psychological and religious belief systems that are at the foundation of our collective consciousness today and briefly explore their historical origins.

It is a difficult thing to become aware of one’s belief systems, let alone arrive at the realization that we are being held hostage by them. This awareness happened to me over a 30 year period of exploring diverse belief systems that gradually altered my perceptions of what life is about. At crucial defining moments in my searching, I was blessed to experience encounters with various teachers in the form of individuals, classes, books, groups, and my own internal promptings. Each of these experiences helped me to identify a core belief and to alter my worldview yet another degree.

I have drawn from material originating in Eastern Thought, New Age Spirituality, Christian teachings, eclectic spirituality, quantum physics, psychology, depth psychology, political and social issues, alternative health, and my own inner resources. For that reason, the information presented here is by default an eclectic synergy of ideas. My intent is for it to be used as a study guide for those who are looking for an interactive way to approach and work with current spiritual and psychological ideas and concepts.

On a very personal level, this work is the outcome of an intense curiosity to understand the nature of consciousness and to articulate to myself how belief systems come into existence. Like most of us, I grew up believing what I had been taught, so naturally I believed my thoughts reflected the way the world really was because they were taught to me by respected adult cultural transmitters such as teachers, parents and family, clergy, and politicians. At least that was the case in my early years.

Since I grew up in America, my formative years were spent being indoctrinated into the basic American belief system which included a strong overlay of Christian teachings and dogma. This foundation of beliefs is the springboard from which I set out on the exploration of concepts that resulted in this book.

A strong drive to question, fueled by my maternal grandmother who struggled with her own questions, began to surface in my late teens and plagued me through my early adult years, catapulting me into searching mode. Mine was a restless search, an obsession of sorts. It was born out of my need to find answers that made sense to me in the reality I found myself as I began having and raising my children in those tumultuous years that were the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s.

I was in my early 30’s when I was introduced to the Seth material.¹ At the time I had recently left a very rigid fundamental church. I was searching in the proverbial spiritual wilderness for answers to so many questions. I had been part of a group within the church that left en masse, feeling disillusioned and betrayed by the leaders of that church and by God to a certain extent because I believed that God had led me to it. Now I understand that it was my limited belief system that attracted me to that church, but that realization was a long time coming.

The method in which the Seth material arrived in this world (through channeling) was the first challenge to my deeply ingrained belief systems and a multitude of fears; but the material was so compelling, had such a ring of truth to my hungry heart, and the ideas fascinated me so much that I couldn’t turn my back on it. Once the Seth material began to open my mind to exploring the connection between belief systems and the nature of reality and consciousness, I became insatiable in my hunger to examine any information that crossed my path.

The material introduced me to the concept that private and mass reality follows belief, and that we create our own reality. It was my first glimpse into the idea that I might have some personal power in this world and that I was not at the mercy of a whimsical god. It was an amazing proposal to me at the time and triggered an avalanche of possibility within me, as I began asking questions such as: If I create my own reality, then how do I do it? What does that mean, exactly, that I create my own reality? If it is possible to consciously create the reality I choose, then why doesn’t my reality change when I tell myself that I have changed my belief? "How do I know what beliefs are true and which are not, and what is truth anyway? Why does an easy, fulfilled life come so readily to some and yet be so desperately unattainable for others?" These questions and many like them became the catalyst for the journey of discovery that is recounted here.

I continued to discover concepts that challenged me to the very core of what I thought was truth, as I traveled from very conservative and fundamental religious beliefs in the 60’s through the Seth material to the study of some Eastern belief systems into the New Age movement in the 70’s and 80’s. During those years, I plunged deeply into my own psyche with the help of transpersonal and Jungian depth psychology. I was attracted to and studied homeopathy and other areas of alternative medicine as I became disillusioned with mainstream medical care. The more I learned, the more I became aware of how threads of new thought worked their way into the collective consciousness as agents of change. This realization filled me with hope and a sense of purpose as I began to experience a new paradigm of thought surfacing on the horizon of my own consciousness that reached far beyond any spiritual, religious or psychological ideas I could have anticipated when I began.

It is my firm belief that we are on the brink of a new axial age. An axial age can be described as a pivotal time in world history where the foundation of philosophy and/or religion generates a dynamic influence within the world that creates profound worldwide change. The axis upon which our new era pivots is a Revolution in Consciousness. With the emergence of the Internet, we have unprecedented access to information from all over the world. This has begun to level the playing field for a huge percentage of the world’s population. We are collectively at a place in human history where we have the tools to change the game anyway we like it. Many are challenging our philosophies, our religions, our beliefs, and our societal structure, and out of those challenges an important era of human history is emerging.

I have traveled through more than six years of experiences in the writing of this book and am astounded at the changes our world has experienced during those years. In 2008 I watched the battle between conservatives and liberals with thrills of fascination. We actually witnessed the battle between the Old Energy of the Status Quo and a New Energy of Change being waged on the political stage. So much of the future of our consciousness and our world as we know it is riding on the outcome of this battle. The New Energy of Change must take hold. The Old Energy of the Status Quo has plunged our nation into a downward spiral that many recognize as dangerous not only for this country but for the world.

As I researched material for this book, my own thinking was profoundly affected when I realized that the ideological battle between what we now call Conservative and Liberal is a very old battle that began with the Literalist and the Gnostic religious movements originating before Christ. I will expand on that idea in Part One of this book.

Barack Obama has said that we are the change we have been waiting for. This is a profound statement that can be understood on many levels. It is one to ponder as we go into the future on Planet Earth.

Lark Aleta Batey, 2011

Notes:

1. The Seth material was channeled by Jane Roberts in the 70’s and 80’s. Before I came across the Seth material, I did not even know what channeling was. Jane Roberts went into trance, and Seth would speak through her. Her husband Robert Butts took notes on what Seth said and transcribed them into the books that ultimately became the Seth material.

The Seth material is even more pertinent today than it was when it was written. My personal library holds 18 of her books. Many of Jane Roberts’s books have been published posthumously from the vast store of collected information by her husband. They are amazing explorations and explanations of the nature of consciousness, and the best information I know to help one begin thinking outside the small box of reality.

The Seth material is available at http://www.sethcenter.com

PROLOGUE

The process of this book is designed to guide each individual into understanding the way beliefs are set into our world view and to discover how the Core Belief Matrix is influential at a very basic level causing us to collectively experience the world within a limited and predictable range of viewpoints.

Chapter one begins this process by discussing where we have been. History is multi-faceted and takes volumes to recount. In order to highlight the hidden beliefs and psychological agendas from the past that drive our personal and collective experiences, I have traced particular threads of belief through history that played an important part in the formation of our religions and customs today.

One of the traits of the Gnostics of early times was their tendency to create stories and myths to illustrate points of view and to introduce new ideas. The teachings were meant to be metaphorical, not literal. In order to increase our vision of what is possible, we need a more expanded story of our origins. I have taken that liberty in chapter three by introducing an expanded story of our origins, and then I build on those concepts throughout the rest of the book.

The progression of this book will demonstrate a systematic exploration of some of the major threads of programming we grew up with and help us gain some insight into how our personal perception of the world was formed, and how it affects our lives.

By challenging what we were taught and finding our own truth, we clear out useless debris that no longer serves us. Once that debris is cleared from our reality landscape, we will then be open to utilizing our hopes and dreams and imagination in order to consciously plant the seeds of our perception of reality onto a new reality landscape.

In so doing, we will have contributed to the construction of a new foundational floor that will become a New Paradigm originating from the clearest parts of ourselves. As we begin to build our world on this new foundation, we gift ourselves with the potential of fulfilling our personal and collective destinies beyond our wildest dreams.

Richard Bach in his book Illusions said, You teach best what you most need to learn. Writing this book was a phenomenal experience for me as it took on a life of its own, leading me down surprising avenues of information and insight, forcing me to scrutinize beliefs both public and private more deeply than I would have ever thought possible.

Are we collectively ready to think outside the box? I think we are, and if so, the information discussed and compiled in this book may help to contribute to the awareness of the map humanity is creating that will take us out of the box we have been languishing in for centuries and play a part in guiding us to the treasure we have been seeking during those same centuries.

Welcome, dear traveler. Shift your perception just slightly and embark on this pilgrimage with me with an open mind. Be willing to play with concepts and ideas and enjoy the ride. Nothing is as it seems.

PART ONE

The Ruse Of Our Fathers

Our history is full of stories of how humanity, individually and collectively, has given away personal power to the spiritual and/or political leaders of the day, allowing them to dictate what is evil and what is good. In doing so, we have collectively sanctioned atrocities against others who believe differently, always in the name of whichever spiritual or political leader happens to be in power.

The Plains of Reason

The inhabitants

Caught in the throes of a destructive drama

Put into subjection

Their female side

Steer themselves into logic

Afraid to look in

Beating their female

Staying tough

Playing their parts well

Perpetuating a lie

Maintaining a continuous split

A comfortable niche

Upon which they can rely.

With a schizophrenic consciousness

This world is manipulated and controlled

No love or concern

Only a scientific eye

Do not trust your feeling side

Only logic must decide.

Man

Symbolically-physically outside

Logic and intellect is his chief prize

Taught not to cry

Nor trust his feeling side.

Woman

Symbolically-physically inside

Allowed to cry, show her feeling side

Passive, nurturing

Intuition her chief prize

Shunned by masculine pride

Like the gods of ancient myths

Into this world they come

Donning their male and female roles

Hiding from themselves the other side

Little knowing the drive

For wholeness

Is what draws them together

And as