You are what you think. It’s an ancient saying that describes the way our thoughts have the power to shape us and our world. If we think we’re worthless, for example, that’s how we will behave and how others will come to treat us. The actions of others eventually vindicate the original sense of low self-esteem. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and one we just don’t see.
But what causes us to have those thoughts in the first place? According to the Time-Light model, all thoughts are the brain’s interpretations of energy pulses or waves, which originate from one of the time centers – present, past and potential. These in turn are created from the traces of experience – or, rather, the emotional or sensory distillation of an event.
So, your sense of worthlessness is your brain’s interpretation of a poorly-remembered event. And here’s the trick of the brain: when it has thoughts of worthlessness, it needs someone to be worthless, otherwise the thought has no significance. The thought of worthlessness almost simultaneously creates the ‘I’ who ‘thinks’ he is worthless!
And that’s how most of us live our lives for much of the time – like a dog chasing its own tail. We are the creation of thought processes that make us feel angry, sad, depressed, worthless, and so on, and we either live that out in the world or perhaps resist it.
What’s beyond this false sense of self? According to neuroscience, absolutely nothing. But according to Time-Light, there’s a miracle. It’s the Potential self, which is outside of time and space. It is the creative possibility that finds expression in space and time. Its still voice can be heard only when the noise of the Past self is quietened, and that happens when the process of memory>pulse>thought>person is recognised and understood.
And what a breakthrough that can be when it happens! Suddenly you realise ‘you’ were never worthless – because the false you from false memory couldn’t exist in the first place.
You are what you think? Yes, but more exactly: you are thought itself.