Belief versus Knowing
 Alex Paterson examines the difference between believing and knowing...
Most people think that what they believe about the nature of reality and what they know about reality are one and the same thing, but this is incorrect. There is a fundamental difference between believing something and knowing something. Beliefs, such as religious theology or scientific theories, are invariably arrived at through a process of logical deduction and/or are taught to people by their peers, mentors, and society - whereas knowing something is always arrived at through personal experience.
Thus for example, humans know that they are physically alive in this realm - not because they believe it based on some theory taught to them by their peers or because they have deduced it - but rather because they are personally experiencing it. The experience of living itself provides a person with the ultimate, albeit personal, 'proof' that they are physically alive in this realm and as such transcends the need for either belief or logic.
The same applies to spiritual experiences. Spiritual proof as to the nature of reality - in other words spiritual enlightenment - is always rooted in a personal spiritual experience that has nothing to do with deduction or spiritual theology taught to humans by their peers.
In my own case, my Near Death Experience (NDE) provided me with incontrovertible personal 'proof' that I am an individualised, but inseparable aspect of SOURCE and as such I came to know that I AM SOURCE - as is everything else in the Universe. This knowing is rooted in the experience itself, which I can unequivocally say was the most 'real' experience I have ever had in this life and as such transcends belief or so called logic. I don't even need to understand it - I just KNOW it.
Once a human experiences what I have experienced, they will know what I mean. It is my belief that all humans are destined to experience some form of spiritual truth in which they re-discover who they really are - namely that they are an individualised but inseparable aspect of SOURCE - if not in this life then certainly in another. 1
For more on this subject see:
Near Death Experience (NDE) by Alex Paterson
The Void by Alex Paterson
Belief Systems by Alex Paterson
FOOTNOTES
1. Experience in the physical realm is a GAME. Esoteric spiritual theology postulates that humans densify (i.e. lower the vibrational rate) of an aspect of themselves and incarnate into this realm forgetting their true identity - namely that they are immortal, multi-dimensional, inseparable aspects of SOURCE - for the purpose of experiencing the illusory perception of being separate from GOD. It is for this reason why mystics who have come to 'know' who they really are, call this realm MAYA which means illusion. If my personal Near Death Experience (NDE) is anything to go by, then humans re-discover their true state of BEING upon death, which is an ecstatic experience associated with the proverbial "prodigal son" returning home to a state of full conscious.
NOTE: Everything in the Universe is a product of the consciousness of SOURCE and as such nothing can exist outside of Source or be separate from Source. The perception of separation from Source experienced by humans in the physical realm is just that - an illusory perception for the purpose of experience. The so called re-connection with Source at physical death is simply a return back to a state of full consciousness. Full consciousness a state BLISS.
For more on this subject see:
Esoteric Theory by Alex Paterson
God's Game by Alex Paterson
Copyright © 1999 Alex Paterson. Visit www.vision.net.au/~apaterson for more of Alex Paterson's work.
|
articles 
