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Perception is projection: The world is your mirror! [Explained]

Perception is projection: The world is your mirror! [Explained]

‘Perception is projection,’ what is that? How can you recognize projection? In short, it means that you project your own behavior and beliefs onto others, for example. The world is your mirror! Read on for a clear explanation of this phenomenon …

Let’s start with this bizarre experiment: Compliments about others hide more about yourself than you think …

If you are in a group, this is a special exercise to do to experience the phenomenon ‘perception is projection’.

Sit in a circle. Everyone receives a piece of paper and writes his / her name on it. Everyone then lets the sheet go around one spot at a time. Whenever you receive a sheet, you write a compliment about the owner of the sheet (before the sheet is passed, it is always folded so that the next person cannot see any compliment.)

If someone says, “You are beautiful,” it is mainly because that person who is saying that is handsome and has a lot of beauty.

At the end, everyone gets their sheet back. Everyone in the group can now share their received compliments to the group, but the group is now going to pay attention to something special: how true the compliment is also for the giver of the compliment!

You recognize something of yourself in the person you don’t want to hang out with at first sight. So that is very educational …

So from now on know: if someone pays you a compliment, the same absolutely applies to the other. So feel free to thank the giver of the compliment with: “Thank you for projecting that on me!”

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

To spread joy, you have to have it. To spread pleasure, you have to be full of pleasure. You achieve that by doing things that are full of pleasure for yourself . Then you also become full of pleasure for others.

People who are interesting are interested.

Someone who constantly thinks about all kinds of other things and other people because they are fascinating becomes a fascinating person. But someone who doesn’t think about other people and isn’t involved with the outside world is boring.

What you sow, you will reap. Whoever bounces the ball can expect it back.

Never do to someone else what you do not wish for yourself

perception is projection

The world is your mirror. At the same time, the world exists in some way only for you ( structure of the subjective experience ). Never do to someone else what you do not wish for yourself.

Do not judge other people and they will not judge you either. Because as you treat others, so you will be treated yourself.
– Matthew 7: 1-2

Don’t do yourself to what you don’t wish for others, because there is no other. Everything you love in the other is what you love in yourself. Anything you don’t love about the other is what you don’t love about yourself.

Someone who hurts you suffers himself. In the Christian tradition: heaven and hell. In the Buddhist tradition: karma. The law of cause and effect.

What you say about someone else always reflects on yourself. Someone says to you, “You’re hiding something.” Then you know that that other person is actually hiding something. Use a premise to rebound the question, “What are YOU hiding?”

The next time you want to criticize someone, ask yourself what you can’t do about yourself. And change in yourself what you think is wrong about others.

Perception is projection: you determine what you project

Ask yourself, ‘what am I perceiving?’ That is equivalent to “What am I projecting?” Life is an illusion: a projection of what is going on inside, and all the answers we seek are also on the inside. Do you experience distance and inequality in the world? That too is a projection of yourself.

You make the distant and unjust world ‘real’ when you fear it and when you judge it. Also undo this illusion of distance and inequality.

The only thing that is really  true is that you get to decide how you see things – David faster Wallace

Everything we see is neutral, but we have no neutral thoughts about it. The thought about the situation determines the situation. The situation itself is neutral / empty. There is nothing outside of our mind: not our body, not the world. What you see is a projection of an ‘inward condition.’ This applies to everything: everything you see (experience) is a projection.

The world is what you think of it. Change your thoughts and you change the world.

If something or someone hurts you, it is always your own projection that has hurt you. Solve the problem without judging the other or the situation (and without the accompanying emotions).

If you believe it, it is true. If you don’t believe it, it’s not true.

You see what you want to see. You never see the world. You see your thoughts. The NLP communication model also teaches us this.

The cynist and the optimist have never been able to agree on what they see. Who is right? The truth is, the cynist is right. He sees exactly what he is looking for and believes. He sees a world without hope. And … the optimist is also right. He sees a world of hope.

That implies something special … That you get what you want! There is only ‘you’. You and your projections. And this is what the law of attraction makes use of.

Your eyes blink an average of 25 times per minute. Those are 25 opportunities to see things differently.

Dedicate your perception to what you want most. Change your mind, soften your focus, see through new eyes, see things in a different light, ask, expect and it is given.

People react differently to the same situation. It is not the situation that bother us, but our approach to it.

It is generally said that people in Amsterdam are less social towards strangers than in Brabant. When I moved to Amsterdam, that belief also came true. In my fitness school locker room, no one ever greeted each other. Until I decided: there is simply no difference between Amsterdam and Eindhoven! Everywhere people are equally spontaneous and loving towards each other. A little later I walked into the dressing room and immediately everyone greeted each other and me.

What you believe will be what you will see. If you believe there are no available men, perception says you are right. If you believe that there are plenty of available men, perception says you are right. Life is difficult when you believe it must be difficult.

How can I do something about my projections?

perception is projection

We are hard on others and judge others on issues we have problems with ourselves. Take back your projections that you project onto others. You choose what you dream, so you choose what you project.

Everything is against it if you choose to focus on that. Everything is fine if you choose to focus on that.

The solution to pain of our own projections is to forgive that we project. To forgive is seeing that what you think the other has done (projection) never really happened. You can bring the problem of the dream back to the mind.

I create you through the actions of my own observations. I give you the characteristics of your personality. In my ‘reality’ you stand no chance: you can only behave yourself in the ways I allow you.

Let’s even take this a step further: we have to say sorry to the people who hurt us. Indeed! To be specific, we have to say sorry for what we projected that allowed them to hurt us. They are a projection of the worst that is inside of us.

One must see the good in every person.
– Abdu’l-Bahá

There are no events, only projections: something only exists because we are aware of it

There are no events, only perceptions. Objective perception does not exist. Let’s do a little assignment …

Count how many f’s there are in the English quote below.

Count the f’s.
Feature films are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.

The answer is 6. Some say 3, 4, or 5 because they don’t see the F in the word ‘or’, which is in it three times. People who think it’s a trick question say: 7 including the headline. And then you have people counting letters that they think resemble an F.

According to the assumptions of quantum physics, you create your own universe based on your own personal observation. If you didn’t know something exists, then it doesn’t exist. So in knowing it, you are actually creating it. 

If there is a tree somewhere in a forest and no one is around, has it made noise? Does that event then exist in the experience of someone who was not there to hear it?

There is also a downside: knowing (that something exists) can limit your choices because it makes you less in touch with all the other infinite ways of ‘knowing’.

Always remember: your focus determines your reality.

If you extend this idea further, you will arrive at non-duality, or oneness: you are me.

It is fundamentally your opinion that you accept the authority of your religion. You create all the authorities you accept.
– Alan Watts

So you give meaning to things and situations… You give meaning to your life!

Take fear, for example. Fear is not in things, it is only in the meaning you give to things. Suffering is not in things, only in the meaning you give to things.

  • Someone has two major accidents in quick succession. One gives it the meaning that God doesn’t care about him, the other gives it the meaning that it is a valuable lesson and that he should be more careful.
  • A boss who doesn’t give you time and attention? That could mean that he doesn’t like you or that he trusts you.
  • Not calling your other half could mean that the romance is cooling off or that the other half is simply busy.
  • Losing your lipstick means an emergency or you have to buy extra.
  • A speeding ticket could mean that the world is out to get you, or that you should slow down.
  • A failed application could mean that you missed something or that something much better is in store for you.

If we hold tight to our beliefs, we risk becoming blind to reality and seeing only what our beliefs confirm.
– Haemin Sunim

The ability to choose your thoughts is the difference between suffering and freedom. A flat tire does not give you a headache because only you can give yourself a headache and you decide not to. A computer crash can mean the end of the world for 10 minutes or a month. It is your choice.

Nothing can harm you except your own thoughts. The good news: you can change your mind whenever you want. Ask yourself: what is the highest thought here?

If situations themselves are neutral and mean nothing, then you are in control. And the same applies to your whole life … You will also have to make the meaning of your life yourself.

Finding meaning in your life is not a quest, but a choice.
– Victor Frankl and his cousin Freddie

Meaning is not found in things, but in what you make of things. So the meaning of life is a choice you make. Not just once, but every moment of the day. When you give new meaning to something, that changes everything.

If you shift from within, you also shift what happens from outside. Every situation, event and relationship is a reflection of yourself.

A video in between: watch Rupert Sheldrake’s TED talk

Until now you have come to the conclusion that the idea of ​​perception is projection is not exactly scientific. Rupert Sheldrake explains in the video below how this phenomenon can still work.

Perception is projection: we are effective co-creators

We are part of the greater whole and at the same time we are a whole, consisting of parts. The part is equal to the whole, but in a small way: God has put his likeness in us. We are therefore all potentially co-creators: the universe takes place within us, like a hologram in miniature within us. This applies to every person, but per person from a different perspective.

The whole contains the part and the part contains the whole.

Are we really creators? We do not create in the same way as God himself, but as a creation from God, who has received Divine qualities. In fact, we create everything in a sense …

Sadghuru once explained this: ‘Point to where I am … No, I am not there. You got it wrong. Light falls on me, reflects, passes through your lenses, becomes an inverted image in your retina, etc. Where do you see me now? In yourself. Where do you hear me now? In yourself. Where have you seen the whole world? In yourself. Have you ever experienced anything outside of yourself? Everything that happens to you, dark and light, happens in you, pain and joy happen in you, joy and sorrow happen in you. Have you ever experienced anything outside of yourself? No. Ask yourself: what is happening in you, and who should decide what to do? Your entire experience of life is determined by you, by no one else, but by you. ‘

There are real people, but they are a projection of you. And you don’t think they are you.

When you look at something in the world from deeper than yourself, consciousness looks and sees itself. When you look at the world as consciousness, you see incredible beauty. And wherever you look: you get a special feeling of ‘I am actually looking at myself’.

You basically look at yourself, because everything is ‘you’. Everything is an expression of consciousness, and so are you. Wherever I look, wherever I go, I see myself in a different form. The true meaning of love is to know the other as yourself. Not love the way the mind tries to love, not the kind of sticky love that is dependent and fearful, but true love.

We say: my hand, my brain, etc. We don’t say: I hand, I brain, etc. So we are not them. We are something else expressing through this vehicle.

And so you ‘create’ and ‘influence’ the right people in your life. This works in two ways:

  1. We attract the people we resonate with. Trainers and coaches attract people as students with resistance, and they encounter their own resistance in this. We attract people with the same values, opportunities, growth opportunities and challenges that we can handle ourselves. If you are congruent with what you teach, you will also attract congruent people. If you yourself are ‘in peace’, you will attract people who want to achieve that too.
  2. The second power of “perception is projection” states that you directly influence the people you meet through the projections you have inside. It may well be that if someone else had stood in front of a group for the same training, the group would have been very different.

What your mind focuses on determines reality. The mind projects its subjective experiences onto the world. This is how good / bad and reality arise. When we look at the world around us, we see only a small part that interests us. The world we see (the little piece of the world) is the universe to our mind.

I had all kinds of problems … I thought. But yes, what you think is your reality.

Reality exists because our mind exists: the world exists because we are aware of it. Conclusion: the world is neither good nor bad. Your mind is good or bad. Your mind completely determines what the world is like. In this way you ‘create’ the world the way you want it. You can choose what to focus on.

If you want to enlighten all of humanity, enlighten yourself. If you want to make the suffering disappear in the world, then let all the dark and negative within you disappear. Truly, the most beautiful gift you have to offer is that of your own self-transformation.
– Lao Tzu

Everyone is like Buddha in the eyes of the Buddha. Everyone is like a pig in the eyes of a pig. Is your mind happy and compassionate? Then the world is too. Are there all negative thoughts in your head? Then the world also seems negative. If our mind is peaceful, then the world is peaceful.

Everyone is like Buddha in the eyes of the Buddha. Everyone is like a pig in the eyes of a pig.

Resonance…? Let’s also take the example of a conflict

perception is projection

Let’s take a closer look at the idea of ​​resonance and make it as simple as possible: something outside has to resonate with something inside to be noticed. If you’ve never seen it before, you don’t see it. So you can’t actually see anyone as he or she really is. We always project our own personal things onto that person.

I’m your projection. Deal with me!

Everyone else we encounter is a reflection of ourselves and the other releases something in us. There is communication because something resonates with it. The opposite of communication is isolation. If you want to break the communication, you have to break the resonance.

Relationships make us aware of what needs to change within ourselves and develop the humility to do so.
– Sri Prem Baba

The quality of that communication is determined because you see something in the other that conflicts with you or not. For a woman, the man she meets is the reflection of her own masculine pole. The encounter with the other sex is the reflection of your own pole (of that sex).

When I find someone annoying, that perception is my own projection. It triggers something in me: my own annoyance. So it says something about me. So I know what I can do: I shouldn’t project this, which is about myself, onto the other.

A conflict with another is always a reflection with an inner conflict. Each of the (outer) conflicts resonate with something within me. Any conflict you have with someone reflects a conflict within yourself. You see that part of yourself in the other, and you resonate with it.

Communication = resonance.

The quality of the communication / relationship corresponds to the communication / relationship that the parts of yourself have with each other. An inner conflict always manifests itself externally, between yourself and another. Unconscious people identify with reflections that others send out

How and what do others reflect in me, what I place with them, but what actually is my own? How can I use this insight to help others (they project their perception onto others so that they don’t address their barriers)?

If you keep bumping into someone, it could just be a message from the world asking you to take a really good look at yourself . Find out what you dislike if you don’t like the other, so what the other person’s disgustingness is. Then see if you have a similar discomfort yourself. If you didn’t have that flaw, you wouldn’t have noticed it.

Why can’t you trust that one friend? Because you know very well that under the same circumstances you would also be able to lie.

There is no one else but you

The aspects of our self-image do not come from ourselves. They are the reflections of the perceptions of the important people in our environment. The effect of this is: I have a system about myself, which are reflections of the images of others (about myself). I live a life that are the reflections of what others consider important. If I live it as a result of my NON-critical self-image, then I live a life that is the reflection of the perception of others.

There is no one else but you.
– J. Lynn

You are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.
– Eckhart Tolle

Most people are other people.
– Oscar Wilde

Generation after generation, structures are passed on and handed down. Awareness of your self-image is seeing through the problem, letting go, getting a new perspective, which is then a reflection of my self-experience. Consider the research with the apes into the collective consciousness. You can see this research as a metaphor: our consciousness reaches further than we think: we are connected in this way. That way we are other people …

You cannot experience anything that is not you.

With this principle you can be on the cause side

perception is projection

Be on the cause side, not the effect side. If someone is projecting nasty things onto you, see that it is also a projection of you. Take back control by standing on the cause side and changing the projection yourself.

Transform the world by stopping someone’s projection before it reaches you and returning it with a projection of love.

It is important here that you do not let yourself be tempted to be influenced by negative models of other people’s world. Stay proactive stand on the cause side , feel it coming man’s message and stop it before it reaches you, catch it and transform the projection of the power of your love and then bounce it back with your Full Source beliefs. That’s how you change the world.

One day, Jesus and his disciples came across the carcass of a dead dog. The dog was long dead and his rotten stench filled the alley. The disciples of Jesus held their noses and picked up the hem of their robes. One of them said, “Hey! What a terrible smell!” Another said, “The sight of all this makes my stomach sick.” One by one they passed the dead creature, while others in town gathered around the carcass to make one more comment about its awfulness.

Jesus, and Jesus alone, stopped at the dead dog. He knelt and stared lovingly at the dog. After a long pause, he finally said, “Praise be to God, what beautiful teeth this creature has.”

Would you like to read more about this topic? The latest work of Mike Dooley is a must!

About The Author

Rubin

Hello! Thanks for reading these articles. My intention is to make happiness as simple and clear as posssible. By the way, excuse my English. I am not a native English speaker since I live in Amsterdam. Much appreciated if you use the comments to make suggestions on my grammar. See ya in another blogpost!

8 Comments

  1. Rene

    Very clear!

  2. Anonymous

    Thanks

  3. MIA

    The latest work of Mike Dooley i? What is called?

    • Teresa P Hutchins

      ok. You said to try not to get caught up in the negative of another’s world. But I thought there is no “other’s ” once again confused by contradiction.

  4. Anonymous

    Ok. So you said not to be influenced by others negative world? I thought there was only me. No “other’s ” and again why nothing makes sense and is contradictory .

  5. Tina

    Hi Rubin – Thanks for generously sharing your knowledge. I would really love to go thru them all one by one. Is there a printer friendly version of these articles that I can download and then print.

  6. Anonymous

    Life is a beautiful thing. You should not do research with it. Just live it. Don’t read irrelevant and stupid explanations like this.

  7. Emerald Metaphor

    I am sorry, this is just the secret, just because we control what gets projected in some limited terms does not mean we control reality, this is bad logic, a NON-ARGUMENY with ZERO actual evidence to support this RELOGION OF WISHFUL NONSENSE. Stringing a bunch of random quotes together is a fallacious appeal to: authority, the past, etc. This is a Yin Yang universe, not an we can control it in my being positive so to make it all X, even if we all think perfectly as required here, there will be happy sad, good bad, up down, YIN YANG, this is just more confirmation bias to punish those that suffer by making it their fault, this is garbage philosophy and worse science, it is the problem we already have, just because we make perception’s contents actual in a sense does not mean we control a damn thing, in fact I don’t think we control anything at all and our refusal to accept that is why rubes believe this drivel in the first place. It is a want what you get, not a get what you universe. This is an hurtful set of FALSE beliefs, it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, people suffer for 2 reasons, to grow, and because other people believe crap like this and do nothing to mitigate unnecessary suffering as a result of this delusion, which those inflicted by it, by suffering they never have a chnace to avoid by their thoughts or otherwise, NOT CONTROL, but that is the thesis here: if you suffer it is all your fault, this is hateful really.