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Wednesday, June 28, 2000

<  Session 651 (Private/Phone)  >

“Competition and Comparison”

“What Is My Ideal Career?”

“The Moldy Muffin Caper”


Participants: Mary (Michael) and Frank (Ulra).

Elias arrives at 12:07 PM. (Arrival time is 20 seconds.)

ELIAS: Good morning!

FRANK: Good morning! How are you today?

ELIAS: As always!

FRANK: Good – glad to hear that! (Elias chuckles) Well, let’s see. I have a number of questions, as usual, and I think I would like to focus, as we have in the past somewhat, on my employment situation. But before that, I have some other questions that I’d like to try to cover here.

ELIAS: Very well.

FRANK: First of all, are you a sports fan?

ELIAS: HA HA HA HA! Are you?

FRANK: Yes, I am!

ELIAS: Very well!

FRANK: Okay! There’s two things I want to talk to you about with regard to that. I guess my real passion in life at this point is coaching sports teams for children, primarily my son, but other kids as well, which I enjoy very much. So, there’s two things surrounding this that I want to ask you about that I suspect are going to relate back to a lot of other things that we’ve talked about in the past.

First of all, I was involved in managing a game last weekend, sort of an all-star game, with the best kids from around the village where I coach. The game ended in sort of a controversy, and I wanted to ask you what that imagery was all about that was presented to me.

The second thing I wanted to ask you about is, a team that I managed this year, which I thought was a very good team and seemed to have a lot of talent, did very poorly in the second half of the season. They did well in the first half, and poorly in the second half, and I’m curious to know what that imagery is all about.

ELIAS: Define to me what your thought process of questioning is in relation to both of these situations.

FRANK: Okay. Well, I’ll start with the first one, with this game over the weekend. It was an interesting, very competitive game. I enjoyed bantering with the kids very much. We ended up winning the game, but at the end, there was sort of a dispute between myself and the other manager, who is actually sort of a friend of mine.

My questioning is, what was subjectively behind all of this? What was underneath all of this? What am I trying to present to myself with regard to that?

ELIAS: Both of these situations relate to the same belief, behaviors, and expressions. But before I am responding to these situations, now identify your thought process in relation to your questioning of the second situation.

FRANK: Okay. With regard to the second situation, I suspect that what has happened with the team I managed in the second half of the season has a lot to do with me anticipating difficulties. We talked about this during our last conversation, how I anticipate the future in sort of a negative way, and that I am creating the future in the now. I suspect that’s what I did there. Does this address to what you just asked me?

ELIAS: Partially, yes, and I shall express to you, partially your assessment of this situation is correct, in identifying some of the elements that are involved in what you are creating and presenting to yourself.

Let me also reiterate to you, both of these situations are presenting very similar imagery to you, offering you the opportunity to recognize and address to another aspect of beliefs.

Now; it is interesting that you initiate this conversation with the question to myself in regard to my like or dislike of the activity of sports, so to speak. (Chuckling)

Now; let me express to you, the like or dislike of this particular type of activity may be identified simply as a preference and a type of activity that you enjoy participating in.

This holds significance and importance in what we shall be discussing in relation to this subject, for you may allow yourself to view that the noticing, recognizing, identifying, and addressing to beliefs, in association with ANY action that you engage within your reality, does not necessarily express that you need be altering or discontinuing your participation in certain actions.

Now; let us address to this particular situation. You are offering scenarios to myself concerning sports activity and your participation in them. This is an action that you participate in, for you view this as pleasurable. It offers you certain expressions within yourself of validation in accomplishment, in self-worth. It also offers you many different types of expressions that you may view as positive, in addition to beneficial, within yourself in many different areas.

You also are, within your focus in this time framework, allowing yourself, in your individual participation in this shift, to be viewing and noticing your own individual beliefs and the aspects of beliefs that are influencing of you, and how those influences interplay with your perception, and how they are affecting of what you create within your reality.

Therefore, as this is the action that you are engaging presently, it shall manifest itself in all directions of your attention; not merely within your relationships, not merely within your work environment, so to speak, but within the environment of play and all other expressions of your activity and interaction presently.

In this, you offer yourself the opportunity to view the influence of competition – and the beliefs that are expressed and manifest in the expression of competition – and comparison. These two particular expressions are extremely powerful within your physical reality and within many, many, many of your societies. They are extremely influencing in many areas of your individual focuses. They are very affecting of your perception within your focus.

Now: you may continue – in your recognition and addressing to these beliefs and the influence of these beliefs – to be participating in actions that you hold in preference, such as games that you identify as sports. But you may also, in widening your awareness and addressing to your beliefs, participate in that action and express that preference without the judgmental aspects, and recognizing the beliefs that influence certain movements that may be associated with these types of activities.

You may also turn your attention and allow yourself to view the sports activities as an obvious, objective, physical example of many other actions that you participate within in your focus and that manifest themselves in similar designs.

In this, competition breeds judgment. The expression of competition, in how it manifests, creates a tremendous expression of judgment and reinforcement of duplicity. Comparison also creates this same type of action. Both of these expressions are intimately exhibited in the games that you participate within and identify as any type of sport.

Now; understand that the sport itself is merely a game. The sport itself does not express the competition or the comparison, for the game itself, in itself, is merely the participation of several individuals in playfulness.

But your beliefs are quite intimately involved in these actions and have been expressed to the extreme that they are no longer separable, in the perceptions that you hold presently, from the game itself. They are an intricate aspect of the game.

You may express to yourself and even to other individuals – to the individuals that participate within the game, the individuals that you coach or that you share experiences in relation to the game – that it is the playing of the game that holds importance, not the winning. But in actuality, this is an underlying element that is ever-present, for the beliefs are extremely strong.

There are comparisons that are expressed between the performances of individuals which directly are affecting of perceptions and of the assessment of worth of all of the participating individuals, and the element of competition introduces automatic judgments and the motivating force of the participating individuals to be right and to be winning, and this is the expression that you use as an outward manifestation to be measuring your abilities and your worth.

Now; this is significant that we be engaging discussion of this type of action, for it allows you, in quite practical, realistic, objective, physical terms, to view an action that you participate [in] within your focus that is fun, that you hold a preference in relation to, that you view as positive, and that you offer to yourself many expressions of reinforcement in a positive manner, but even in these expressions, there are judgments being expressed.

In this, as I speak to you of acceptance, many times individuals, yourself also, create an interpretation of this information in the manner that if you are to be accepting of certain beliefs or of self and certain behaviors that you express within your focus, you also need be eliminating certain practices or certain expressions or actions within your focus, and this is not what I am expressing to you.

I am not expressing to you that the action of acceptance should be interpreted as, behaviors and activities that you are participating in now are unacceptable or that you should be discontinuing your participation in any of these activities, but that you recognize the influence of your beliefs in these activities and how they are affecting of you, how they are affecting of your perception – which creates your reality outwardly – and how that is affecting of other individuals.

The point within all of this interaction that I engage with you is to be offering you information, that you may objectively recognize more of your reality, and therefore allow yourselves to be engaging choice. For you collectively have requested information, that you may be avoiding or lessening conflict and trauma as you widen your awareness. (1)

Therefore, as I offer information to you, I am not expressing to you that you are creating any action that is bad or wrong presently, for you are not. I am merely expressing to you information that may be offering you another avenue in which you may be objectively viewing what you yourselves are creating and participating within, and therefore you may allow yourselves more choices, to be lessening or eliminating your own conflict.

Now; in the situation of the first scenario, you express validation to yourself and within interaction of other individuals, for you have accomplished your goal, so to speak, of winning, and this creates within you a jovial feeling and an excitement. The reason it creates this excitement and this joyousness is that you are allowing yourself to validate your accomplishment, which validates your worth and your abilities.

In this, the underlying expression is the competition and the comparison.

As I have stated, competition and comparison breed judgment, in both good and bad. But good or bad, both are judgments; it matters not. Both express both judgments simultaneously, for they are intertwined to the extent that one is not expressed without the other.

In this, as you interact within this allowance of an outside validation, and you encounter other individuals whose perception may be expressed differently – or they may be expressing ANY element differently – within that moment of excitement, the perception of validation is exaggerated.

Be remembering, difference in any of its expressions is threatening, and therefore is unacceptable.

Therefore, as any other individual may approach you and may be offering ANY type of expression within the moment that is different from the expression that you are creating, as your creation is exaggerated, your reception of their expression becomes exaggerated also, and this opens the door, so to speak, for conflict.

Are you understanding thus far?

FRANK: Yes, I think I am. This is very interesting.

ELIAS: This is the reason that I direct your attention repeatedly and strongly to self and to the understanding of perception, for your perception is extremely powerful, and it, in a manner of speaking, is objectively manipulating all of your reality.

Therefore, as you create in one direction or expression of extreme or intensity, other expressions also follow within suit, so to speak, for this is the direction of your attention. Therefore, you engage other interactions, and they also become exaggerated or extreme.

Which, I may express to you also, as I have been expressing to many individuals recently, the key element of all of these interactions, that may be helpful to you in remembering, is the strength of your association with sameness and difference.

Sameness in all of its expressions offers you an outside validation, and you seek it out, for you do not offer validation to yourselves automatically from within, for you are unaccustomed to holding your attention within self. Therefore, you seek out experiences and interactions that shall be validating to you from outside of you. Difference threatens you, and therefore you are rejecting of it, for you view yourselves in comparison.

Therefore, as you compare yourself to any other expression within your reality, if you view there to be sameness, you shall validate yourself, and you shall offer to yourself more of an expression of worth. If you view difference, you become threatened, for this is assessed automatically as a discounting of yourself, that there be some expression or element of you that is unacceptable or wrong and needs be questioned.

Now; also be understanding that all of these expressions may not be filtered through your thought process at any given moment. You may move yourself in automatic expressions and immediately express outwardly, in turning your attention to circumstances or situations or other individuals, even to objects, and be expressing that THEY are discounted, or....

FRANK: Yeah. I discount them.

ELIAS: Correct; in the objective expression, in an automatic response.

But the underlying action is not in actuality the expression of discounting any other individual or situation, but a recognition that you are discounting of yourself, for you are doubting of yourself in your ability to be accomplishing, and that is what you offer to yourself in this action of comparison and competition, to be validating of yourself. Are you understanding?

FRANK: Yes. Yes, I am.

ELIAS: Therefore, both of these situations are your presentment to yourself, as you have allowed yourself to be noticing of them, of these two aspects of beliefs and their expressions – of comparison and competition.

Let me also express to you, you may be engaging these games in sports in their design, and continue to be playing the games as they have been designed, and not genuinely be incorporating the expression of comparison or competition. (Pause) This is not what you DO, but it IS accomplishable.

FRANK: If I change my attitude ... or my outlook, the way I view the situation.

ELIAS: As you allow yourself to widen your awareness objectively, and turn your perception, yes; and this, I shall express to you in genuineness, is extremely affecting of other individuals.

FRANK: IF I do that.

ELIAS: Yes.

FRANK: If I (inaudible) meaning the players and the parents and everyone involved.

ELIAS: All of the individuals that you interact with, yes.

FRANK: Okay, I can see that. In fact, I think I already knew that!

ELIAS: (Chuckling) And I shall be acknowledging of you. You are correct. You did already know! (Chuckling)

FRANK: Okay, let’s move on to a new topic, if we could.

ELIAS: Very well.

FRANK: I’d like to talk a bit about my employment situation. It’s sort of a recurring theme I have here!

ELIAS: Ha ha ha!

FRANK: (Laughing) Let me start off with two questions.

First of all, I don’t feel as motivated as I should be towards what I’m doing right now, and I’m wondering if the reason for that is a lack of trust in my abilities, or if maybe I’m just not doing the right thing with my life.

So the first question is, what would explain the lack of motivation, or at least what I think is not enough motivation?

Number two, what would be sort of an ideal career for me in terms of, what would be the job that I would enjoy, and just love to get up in the morning and go and do?

ELIAS: First of all, I shall express to you that your lack of motivation is not expressed for the reason that you are not creating what you are “supposed” to be creating.

I shall express also that this is quite interrelated to the issues that we have spoken of previously, in your doubting of your own abilities and your doubt which is affecting of your trust of yourself, and as you allow yourself to be expressing that trust of self and acknowledgment of your abilities and not the doubt of your abilities more and more, you shall also be creating more of an expression of that motivation that you are noticing a lack of.

I shall also express to you, in response to your question of what may be the most efficient or suitable action for you to be creating, you ARE creating already efficiently. In many respects, so to speak, what you are engaging presently is quite suitable to you and to your direction of attention.

I may also express to you that you create limitations upon your creativity and your natural expression, for you doubt and discount your ability to be creating further, and you also continue to be wary of expressing yourself within your creativity in relation to how that may be expressed not necessarily in compliance or alignment with those individuals that you view as authorities.

Let me express to you that you may be quite helpful to yourself in allowing yourself to be examining the type of expressions and creativity that you view as fun. One of those expressions we have been discussing throughout this session! (Pause)

And in that, allow yourself to view your automatic response in discounting yourself – that what you view to be fun, in your preferences and your expressions of creativity, you also offer to yourself the expression that you may not be creating those actions and providing yourself with your physical needs in those expressions.

Allow yourself to view how you identify your employ and what you participate within. You view your action of sports to be play and fun. You identify your employment as work. (Pause) You do not identify that action as a preference or pleasurable or fun. It is a labor. It is work and it is limiting, but it need not be such. This, once again, is an expression of your perception.

The work that you engage does offer you an expression of creativity, but a limited expression of creativity, but it is not the job that limits your expression of creativity. It is you and your reluctance to be expressing yourself, for you view that that expression may place you in opposition of those individuals that you have defined as authorities.

Therefore, my suggestion to you, as has been previously, is to be examining your assessment of yourself, your abilities, your worth, and examine your definition of your job, and individuals that you deem to be in authority of you. For in actuality, there are no individuals that hold authority over you.

FRANK: Okay. Let’s talk about that a little more deeply, because I’m not sure how my relationship with people I view as authority ... how am I limiting my creativity in that respect? (Pause)

ELIAS: This is an automatic response. As you move in an association with any individual that you deem to be in authority of yourself, you shall also alter your expressions and your behaviors in compliance with the desires or the dictates of those individuals that you deem to be authorities.

Each time you are altering of your movement in compliance with the dictates of another individual and you are viewing that individual as an authority, you are creating an automatic response of discounting your position as another individual and you limit your natural flow of creativity, for your attention is focused upon the wants and the designs of another individual. Are you understanding?

FRANK: Yes. In abstract terms, yes.

ELIAS: Let me express to you an example. Hypothetically, let us view a scenario in which an individual engages employment in which their job entails the action of recruitment of other individuals to be participating in certain expressions of activity. It matters not what the activity may be expressed as.

Now; as the individual views another individual to be an authority [or] in a position of authority as their employer, the individual may be limiting of their natural expression in creativity, in how they may engage this action of recruitment of other individuals in association with their job, by accepting the dictates and design of the individual in authority to them.

Let us express that the individual which holds the position of authority offers to the employee, “I view this method to be the most efficient manner in accomplishing this action of recruitment to our company,” so to speak.

The employee, in viewing this individual as an authority, may express a different method, which may be quite efficient in their own design and may be accomplishing equally as efficiently as the method that has been offered by the employer, but the employee automatically moves in response to the expression of the individual in authority, and limits their own choices in their natural flow of creativity that may be offered within this particular job, for they automatically align with the individual in authority and “follow the rules,” so to speak.

You ALL participate in this type of action. You participate in this action within your societies in relation to your law enforcement, to your governments, to your jobs. You enact this within your homes, as parents in authority to children. Children express this in authority to creatures. You ALL participate in this type of action.

And in the action of this shift, you are moving away from the design of allowing your reality to be dictated to you by other individuals, circumstances, situations, or beliefs, and you are becoming your own directors. But this is a very unfamiliar action, and therefore you struggle with your movement into the expression of this action, for you are doubting of your ability. You are unfamiliar with your own expressions of creativity, with your own abilities, and you are unfamiliar with the acceptance and trust of yourselves.

FRANK: Okay, so that’s where I am right now.

ELIAS: Yes!

FRANK: Because as far as the first part goes, I don’t feel like I get any direction. I mean, I feel like I’m completely on my own to do whatever I choose. I just don’t feel like I’m being affected by authority figures, as far as that goes, at this point.

ELIAS: But you also view guidelines, which have been incorporated through your experiences.

Let me express to you, I am offering to you objective examples that may be presented in obvious terms, that are easily viewed and easily assimilated.

Now; from this, you may allow yourself the recognition that this may be translated into many underlying expressions. It need not be the obvious, objective expression of another individual, but that the accumulation of experiences that you have participated within in these types of situations have created or influenced the creation of a particular type of perception that you hold now.

FRANK: I got it.

ELIAS: And in this, the perception is creating your reality, and that is what is creating the limitations and the lack of motivation.

FRANK: Got it. I think I understand now. (Elias chuckles) Okay, very interesting. Perception ... let’s say I want to choose a new perception about myself. How do I do that? Do I just decide that I’m gonna perceive something new? I mean....

ELIAS: It is not a question of “deciding” that you shall choose a new perception. Turning your perception is accomplished in your recognition of reality.

You in actuality DO alter your perception often. It may not be expressed in what you identify as extremes, but you often are altering your perception, as you do offer yourself information continuously, objectively, and you are moving more and more into the objective recognition of your beliefs and how they are influencing of you.

As you become aware objectively, and as you allow yourself the recognition of what you create and how you are creating within your reality and what is influencing of that, you continuously widen your awareness, and in that widening of awareness, you ARE altering your perception.

It is not a situation of viewing within your thought process that you may choose a different type of perception and thusly implement that and create that, for examine your motivation in that action. The motivation is expressed from the point of, the perception that you hold presently is inadequate or not good enough, and that a different perception may be better.

I am expressing to you that your perception automatically alters as you open to your periphery, as you widen your awareness, and as you become more accepting of YOU. (Pause) The more familiar you become with you, the more you alter your perception.

Your perception is based in objectivity. It is designed to be an objective expression, for you have designed and created an objective physical reality. Therefore, as you are affecting of yourself in objective manners, you are also affecting of your perception. Your perception is already in motion and altering through the interaction of our conversation this day. (Pause)

FRANK: Okay. One last thing, ‘cause time is running short here. This morning, I got up and I pulled a bag of English muffins out of the refrigerator, and stuck them in the toaster and ate them. They were good, so I thought I’d have a couple more, and I looked, and they were all moldy. The whole package of muffins was moldy....

Vic’s note: Here, Frank’s voice cuts out completely, and there is a 12-second pause, during which Elias is rocking and smiling.

FRANK: Hello?

ELIAS: You have interrupted your transmission objectively.

FRANK: Oh!

ELIAS: Shall you repeat your statement for your transcription?

FRANK: Yes. This morning I had breakfast, and I ate some English muffins. It was a brand-new package, and I pulled them out of the refrigerator and put them in the toaster and ate them. They seemed okay, so I went to get some more, and I realized the whole package was moldy. My question is, what was that imagery all about?

ELIAS: Let me express to you the inquiry, and how do you feel?

FRANK: I feel okay!

ELIAS: HA HA HA!

FRANK: I did feel queasy for a while, but I’m not sure that wasn’t just psychosomatic.... (the audio is cutting out again)

ELIAS: And how is your functioning?

FRANK: Fine, so far!

ELIAS: Ha ha ha ha ha!

FRANK: But assuming there are no coincidences....

ELIAS: There are not!

FRANK: Okay! So why did that happen, briefly?

ELIAS: That you may allow yourself to view perception.

As you engaged this action, and your perception initially was in the identification that these muffins were acceptable, (Frank laughs) they were, and this is a reality. It is not that you have consumed a muffin that was not acceptable or that was moldy, for the muffin that you consumed was not, for in your perception and the creation of it, this was not what you engaged, and therefore it is a reality.

Subsequent to that action, you created the other muffins being moldy, within your perception.

Now; you also allowed yourself to view objectively that you may be consuming of this muffin, and whether it be moldy or not, it may be affecting of you merely as you allow it to be affecting of you through your creation of perception, and this is influenced by your beliefs.

Once again, as you have previously in relation to our interactions within these sessions, you have presented yourself an objective example, in physical manifestation, of our discussion within this session.

FRANK: (Laughing) Yes, I have!

ELIAS: You create this type of action quite often as your own expression of objective imagery, in your method, so to speak, of assimilating the information that you and I discuss together. (12-second pause, and Elias chuckles) And you are interrupting of your transmission once again! (6-second pause)

I shall translate for our transcriber, Lawrence – who is expressing thanks – ha ha ha! – in the discontinuing of this interaction this day, and I shall express to you great affection and anticipation of our next meeting, my friend. To you this day, au revoir!

Elias departs at 1:16 PM.

Vic’s note: As Mary returned, which only takes a few seconds, there was a clicking noise, which might have been the phone, and Frank was reconnected, so to speak, although the phone was never disconnected. Interestingly enough, this happened in Frank’s last session too.


Endnotes:

(1) I have changed one word in the following phrase: “The point within all of this interaction...” It was originally stated: “The point within all of this information...”


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