Common steps and sub-activities

Questioning and doubting all existing beliefs

In the section on memory I have described first of all what memory holds – the learnt function and the database of facts - and then gone into a little more detail about the types of things we hold in memory – Memory – the types of model in memory and Memory and systems and consequently just how many systems we attempt to learn. I have also provided a very simple explanation of how we use the database of facts – Memory – traversing the database of facts.

I also go into a little detail about how we form memory – one major factor being the extraordinary impact emotion seems to play in forming memories – Memory and emotion. As an extension of this I also have a look at all the subliminal models we may have in memory that we don’t even realise we have – Memory and subliminal models.

What I hope should come out of all this is that we know nothing.

Our memory does a moderately good job of keeping us alive and fed and warm, occasionally it doesn’t. But on the whole what we know is nothing in the scheme of things – we are – all of us without exception – terribly terribly ‘ignorant’. And it is no use you saying ‘speak for yourself, I have a double first at Oxford for botany’. I would still say exactly the same.

A double first at Oxford tends to mean that you have been able to cram a lot of information from books other people have written into the limited capacity of your memory and regurgitate it during an exam. That is all. I did it too.

It means nothing.

We know nothing; and the ones that read books all the time as opposed to observing what is happening about them know even less. As a little spirit once said to me ‘leaves lie, Rosie, leaves lie’.

So everything we know is a belief system - not the truth, not fact, but a belief system and it gets in the way of spiritual experience in a major way.

This entry is absolutely key, absolutely key.

For more essential background information I urge you to read the section on Belief systems.

Method

I have provided a selection of options for you to choose from as this area is a difficult one to achieve

Method one - Being with children

Method two - Read challenging books

Method three - The guru

A guru or a helper or a mentor can be extremely useful. Gurus can be masters of destruction, especially if they have been through this themselves. They are there to destroy beliefs not replace them, you should come away with an almost empty mind

I would like you to read this again. If the guru tries to implant their own beliefs you have the wrong guru. Be very very wary, there are some nasty people out there whose objective is power over people and money.

I have provided an example of a good guru in the observations. Irina Tweedie’s guru was Bhai Sahib who attacked every belief she had, but replaced it with precisely NOTHING - absolutely ideal……

Method four - Aleister Crowley’s forced change of views

Method five – Erickson’s contradiction

Method six - Lewis Carroll’s forced belief in the ‘illogical’

Method seven - Contradiction

Method eight - The ‘acid test’

This final method I have devised is one I found helpful, it is a way of testing belief systems for their validity. You might find that if you apply these tests you get rid of a vast number of your beliefs – a good start. You can then go back to the previous methods.

How to Know Higher Worlds – Rudolf Steiner

When we are sufficiently matured for these experiences, we receive what is called symbolically the ‘potion of oblivion’. That is, we are initiated into the secret of action uninterrupted by the lower memory.

This is necessary for an initiate, who must always have complete confidence in the immediate present. We must know how to tear down the veils of memory that surround us at every moment of our lives. Otherwise, if I judge today’s experiences by those of yesterday, I become subject to many errors.

This does not mean that we should deny our prior experiences. On the contrary, as far as possible, they should always be present. But initiates have to be able to judge each new experience on its own merits and let it work upon them, untroubled by the past.

Faust part two – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Ah, now the learned man begins to preach
What you can’t touch is quite beyond your reach
What you can’t grasp does not exist for you
What you can’t calculate cannot be true
What you can’t weigh cannot have any weight
A coin you have not minted must be counterfeit

Observations

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Common steps and sub-activities

Questioning and doubting all existing beliefs

Method

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