Ride The Magical Mystery Train
Take a perception-shifting journey.
If you will come aboard this perception-shifting train, prepare to step off the train with an altered state of mind and point of view.
Your ticket is an open heart and mind. The destination is a new way of seeing things.
Many years ago, a group of Shift members went on a real train ride together.
We studied, laughed, played, and shifted our perceptions. When we got off, everything seemed different—better than before.
When we boarded the train, we didn't need to know how it worked or how it would reach its destination. We only knew that if we boarded the train in Los Angeles, we could get off in Portland, Oregon.
The same idea applies to this perception-shifting train ride.
You don't have to know how this perception shift will occur. All you have to do is board the train and be willing to experience a change in perception.
On board? Here we go!
See things upside down or opposite of what they appear to be.
Have you ever looked at things as the opposite of what you thought they were?
For example, instead of seeing "the figure," you decide to practice seeing "the ground."
Sometimes, it is the other way around. I have never been able to see the Batman logo. To me, it's teeth.
It's a perception shift and a fun skill to practice. It changes how you see the world and reminds us that no one sees anything the same.
One of my favorite perception-shifting tools is called face and replace.
This is how it works.
When something physical or mental comes into your experience, instead of taking it at face value and reacting to it either positively or negatively, you face it and replace it with the highest understanding of your truth.
For example, if I think the economy is slowing down, I confront that idea and replace it with the truth that the Infinite's economy never slows down, is always present, and is all that I, or anyone else, can experience.
What about a good thing like feeling love for another? Do we face and replace that, too?
Yes.
Instead of just allowing it to remain within a human idea of love, it can be replaced with a higher understanding that Love is all there is, and the love we feel for another represents that truth.
This means that love remains stable and secure within its true context.
Since "what we perceive to be reality magnifies," shifting is more than fun. It is imperative.
What about shifting the worldview belief that personality is all-important?
As our perception-shifting train pulls out of the station, we can hear songs like "My Way," "I’ve Got To Be Me,” and "She's Got Personality" being played, reminding us that there is a cult of personality that has many of us mesmerized.
However, on this train, we notice that the idea of a personal personality is no longer appealing.
We notice that it is increasingly difficult to maintain the responsibility it contains, and the thought of letting it all go and recognizing our divine identity instead brings a warm bath of relief.
The basis of any perception shift is an agreed-upon premise.
Riding on this train, we agree that there is only one Infinite Mind, often called God.
We agree that God is omnipresent, omniscient, omniaction, and omnipotent: the only presence, the only intelligence, the only action, the only power.
This is a perfect premise because it provides a safe and secure seat for our train ride.
Then who are we?
If there is only one God, and it fills all space, how can there be millions of "me as personalities?"
Since we know that the first place to start with a mystery like this is by stating the truth, we'll face and replace this.
Although it appears that there are millions of personalities, that cannot be the case. If there is only one who is omnipresent, there can only be one I or Us.
But how does that work? How can there be only one I or us? What does that look like?
We'll return to the idea of infinite intelligence to get the answer.
This intelligent mind has ideas in an infinite, ever-expanding number.
We can understand this because we have a few ideas ourselves.
We know what that means. Our ideas are entirely within our thinking, and what we do with them is entirely up to us.
These ideas do not think for themselves or get their identity or supply anywhere but within our thinking.
We then express those ideas in action.
We have an idea of what to cook for dinner, and off we go to make it.
We have an idea of visiting a friend, and off we go to visit that friend.
Everything within is expressed without.
Let's get back to God and Its ideas.
Just like our ideas, God's ideas are within and seen without.
In the Infinite Mind’s case, being the only cause and creator, It is seen without as trees, flowers, men, women, fish, birds, clouds, money, sugar—yes, everything.
That means that everything we appear to see is the Infinite, present as ideas in action.
Therefore, when we see money— as an example—we can face and replace the idea that money is solid and limited with the fact that money is fluid, ever-expansive, and the always-present idea of God, maintained by God and direct from God.
Mary Baker Eddy said, "Man is the compound idea of God."
That in itself is a bold, provocative statement.
However, as I pondered letting go of the idea of a personality called "me" and replacing it with the idea that I am an idea of God, I realized I had been thinking about this statement from within the personality called me.
I was interpreting it as saying that I-me-man is the compound idea of God.
However, that would mean there would be many "men," all the compound idea of God. That does not support the idea that we are all One.
In fact, it produces the exact opposite.
We see ourselves as separate from everything—an observer, as in, "Here I am, and here are all those other things."
Here's the magical part of this Perception Shifting Train.
Let's see this idea differently.
Instead of each one of us as the compound idea of God, let's perceive all those infinite ideas we call leaves, flowers, grass, sand, and snowflakes—all those infinite ideas of God—all together (compound) as One and call it Man.
This perception literally shifts everything.
Instead of seeing ourselves as the observer outside of it all, meaning sometimes we experience the abundance of the world for ourselves and sometimes we don't; now we are within it all and we can feel the truth of the statement "All that I have is thine".
Since ideas cannot think or act on their own, we give up the illusion that we have any personal power and experience. Instead, we are the expression and action, the thought, the idea, of the Infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omniaction.
Instead of an observer, we are one with it all, one with the flower, because we all are One, the compound idea of God called Man. Elephant, monkey, coffee, sand. All. Man. Myself, Us, I, One.
Now, the idea that there is only one I or Us makes perfect sense.
As this Magical Mystery Perception Train pulls into the station, pause.
Instead of the observer observing, step inside the experience of all that you see.
Imagine now that it is all One, and it is all called man—only one God, only one Man.
Us as One, the compound idea of the Infinite expressed.