The Programming of Consciousness Controls Us! (Through Beliefs, Norms, and the Like). Fortunately, We Control It …

– by Søren Lauritzen

Our consciousness and our will are the two most powerful things we have.

Did you know that they can be programmed?
 

We’ve Got the Power!
– We Have the Power in Our Lives – Thanks to Our Consciousness and Our Will

If by now you’re thinking, “Why is my will and my consciousness be so powerful?” the answer is:
 

Willing and Effective Will

Our will is what we use to make all the decisions in our lives, both small, big, and life-changing ones.

It is with our will that we set our intentions and goals.

And we also use our will when we want to stick to our decisions, intentions, and goals (willpower), change them, or let go of them (make new decisions).

Clever and Comfortable Consciousness

Our consciousness is that with which we use to imagine things (imagination and creativity), and to shape ideas, desires, intentions, and plans (creative power).

We then use our consciousness, both while we act on our decisions and afterwards, to assess and adjust (judgment and adaptation) as well as to sort and filter out the consequences of our decisions and actions – and of everything that happens in and around us.

It is with our consciousness that we experience – both ourselves, others, the world, and life (our life experience). If we have a good experience, it’s because of our consciousness. If we have a bad one, it’s also because of our consciousness. This is true regardless of what actually happens. Regardless of whether the things that are happening are “good” or “bad” because:

We create our own, personal reality with our consciousness.

At a subatomic, quantum-physical level, it is our consciousness and will / intention that determine how the building blocks of the physical (and non-physical) world should behave. It is with our consciousness, that we, quite literally, shape the world.

(If the above paragraph seems unlikely or exaggerated, try, for example, checking out the well-known double-slit experiment (a more easily ‘digestible’ description is available here at BBC). This experiment has repeatedly established that the presence of a human observer changes the physical results. But more importantly, researcher Dean Radin (e.g., here) and more recently physicist Gabriel Guerrer (here) have proven that humans are able to consciously control what happens at the subatomic level. Guerrer has further noted that the more training of consciousness (e.g., through meditation, mindfulness, attention training, or something similar) people have, the more effectively they can control the subatomic level with their intention, and thus also control the physical results). Quantum physics (and thus all physics) and consciousness are very closely interlinked.

Our Consciousness and Will Are Extremely Powerful!

Our consciousness and our will can be programmed. This is truly an explosive fact.
 

Consciousness Programming

Programming our consciousness and will isn’t like programming a computer or a smartphone. However, it’s not that far from it either. This analogy of consciousness is perfectly applicable.

When programming a computer or a smartphone, you determine how it should be used, what it should do, when, and how. You control it.

When programming our will and consciousness, it’s the same thing. I call it consciousness programming.

Consciousness programming is exactly what it sounds like. A way to program – and thus control – our consciousness and will.

So when our consciousness is programmed, which is the case for all of us, it has significant and far-reaching consequences …

When our consciousness and will are programmed, it’s the programming that determines how we experience our lives.

Yes, more than that:

To a very large extent, it is our consciousness programming that determines how we think, feel, believe, choose, and act.

Yep, you read that right. Our thoughts and feelings, our beliefs and convictions, as well as our decisions and actions are in large part dictated by our consciousness programming.

In other words: Our consciousness programming is super important.

Who Makes the Decisions in Our Lives?

When you start to understand how important consciousness programming is, it becomes vital to know:

Who programmed us?

The answer is: Our surroundings and ourselves.

In short, this means:

Externally, other people (our environment) can control our consciousness and our will (and thereby us) – and they do. Just as we internally can control ourselves, our consciousness, and our will – and we do.

Ultimately, we decide. We are the ones who have the power in our lives, and we determine how our life experience should be, simply because it is our consciousness and our will. And our will is free.

But … there’s a big “but”.

Consciousness programming IS something we have chosen ourselves. It’s us who have decided that we should have it, BUT we have often received or created it so discreetly and subtly that we haven’t noticed it happening, and it typically happened so long ago (in our early childhood) that we can no longer remember it. The programming is now part of our unconscious mind, our subconscious mind.

In short:

In the past we have created – and said “yes” to – a lot of programming that we are no longer aware of. And this programming controls us here and now, in our adult lives.

So even though we have 100% control over our consciousness and will as well as all our consciousness programming, we actually have no control over that of which we are not aware: Instead of us controlling it, it controls us!

We all have a large pile of consciousness programming. A huge pile, in fact. And it’s not a neatly organized pile, it’s a mess, where some parts of our programming are in direct contradiction with other parts. (Which leads to strange and confusing results).

Basically we’re all in dire need of a thorough cleaning up of our consciousness programming. Both the conscious one and the subconscious one.

The Two Types of Consciousness Programming

As indirectly indicated above, basically there are two types of consciousness programming: A social / cultural one and a personal one.
 

 

The Social / Cultural Programming of Consciousness

We are all raised within a culture. Often, this culture includes a religion.

We adhere to certain norms, habits, traditions, and laws.

We share certain beliefs and values as well as a common morality and ethics.

And usually, we try to fit in and live up to the expectations of our surroundings.

Upbringing and adaptation – both of these things lead to a programming of consciousness.

As Danes (Birgitte and I are from Denmark, Scandinavia) – and citizens of the world – we also have a kind of shared reality that we partially / somewhat agree upon, a so-called consensus reality. (In fact, we can be part of several different groups and accept multiple different consensus realities all at the same time).

These are all examples of social / cultural consciousness programming.
 

The Personal Programming of Consciousness

On top of that, we have the personal programming of consciousness. Much of this programming of our consciousness we have done very early in our lives, in our very first years. And this programming is often not very useful or beneficial for us as adults. However, it still controls us, many years – or decades – later.

Our personal consciousness programming includes, for example, our personal beliefs, mindsets, habits, attitudes, assumptions, expectations, decisions, and, most importantly, our ego (AI, our artificial intelligence).

We also have a personal reality (our perception of reality), which is entirely our own.
 

Consciousness Programming Is not “Sacred”

We tend to feel that certain types of consciousness programming are untouchable. Somewhat sacred. (Or very sacred).

This is especially true when it comes to cultural traditions and religions, as well as various types of beliefs – both the religious and non-religious ones, as well as the social / cultural and personal ones. Sometimes we call it faith, and in a country like Denmark, fortunately, we have freedom of religion, which means that we are allowed to believe what ever we want (this is not a given fact in every country).

At the risk of offending some people, I would like to emphasize this:

Consciousness programming is not sacred or untouchable. It is ONLY programming. A kind of habit.

 

We can choose to keep the parts of the programming that we find beneficial and desirable, such as the idea that it’s a good idea to help others and a bad idea to harm them. And we can choose to discard everything we no longer wish for, such as limiting ideas about who we are, how we should think and live, and so on.

If we are interested in personal development – or spiritual development – then working with our consciousness programming is one of the most powerful and effective things there is. And if we completely let go of our consciousness programming, we will get the most healing, positive, and beneficial results. (More on that in another article).
 

The Robots Are Coming! No, They’re Already Here, and They’re Us

Almost everyone is familiar with the analogy of the famous glass that can be seen as either half full (the optimist) or half empty (the pessimist). I’ve written an article about worldviews and perspectives, where I turn the analogy into a little story and stretch it so far that it becomes funny. The example with the glass illustrates in a very precise way what consciousness programming does: It colors everything for us and makes us react in a very predictable way.

Exactly because we’ve all programmed ourselves – and allowed ourselves to be programmed by others.

We all probably know that feeling, that there’s something we’d like to share with someone, for example, our mother, our father, Aunt Agatha, or our friend Harry … but we don’t. Why? Because based on our previous experience, we feel confident that we already know how they will react, and we just can’t be bothered.

The reason they react the same way over and over again is because of their consciousness programming.

So at the risk of repeating myself (partially) (in my experience you really can’t say it too often):

Our consciousness programming doesn’t just control our perspective but our entire consciousness and our will, so that we always see and interpret everything in a certain way, after which we think, feel, choose, and act in specific ways – all of this happens in a completely automatic and predictable manner.

And what ever we experience next … will most likely also be programmed and predictable.

Does it sound a bit robotic?

That’s because it IS robotic!

 

All Types of Consciousness Programming Limit Us

Essentially, our consciousness is huge, and our will is completely free. So the headline pretty much says it all …

All types of consciousness programming are not only controlling but also limiting – both of our will and of our consciousness. And thus also of our entire life and life experience.

One should think that it’s bad enough that the programming of consciousness automates us, but the fact that it limits us is just as bad.
 

Consciousness Programming = Consciousness Limitations = Roadblocks that Give Us a Poorer Life Experience

The relationship between consciousness, will, efficiency, and consciousness programming can be described in very simple terms:

The more programming our consciousness carries around, the more ‘locked up’, limited and inefficient it is. And the fewer choices we feel we have.

Conversely, and more positively formulated:

The more consciousness programming we let go of, the more free, unlimited, and efficient our consciousness becomes. And the more choices we feel we have.

Plus, in continuation of that:

A free, unlimited, and efficient consciousness and will provide us with a good, pleasant life experience.

One might as well put it like this …
 

Awareness Is Cool – Non-Awareness is Not Cool

No matter how we view it, it’s not satisfying to live life like a robot and only get pre-programmed experiences. From a certain perspective, it’s the opposite of truly living.

In order to feel like you’re truly alive, not only must you dare to be authentic, you must also be present in the now and experience that you are free and have options.

Regarding options (or choices), the correlation is quite simple:

The degree to which we feel we have a choice largely depends on how much self-awareness we have. More awareness breeds more options.

Or put another way:

When we expand our consciousness, we free our will, give ourselves a broader perspective, and increase our number of options.

There’s nothing strange about it; it’s rather logical and natural. A broader consciousness sees things in a larger perspective and can contain more … of everything. This includes more free will, more insight, and more opportunities.

Not-so-self-aware people don’t have many options or choices – they do as their consciousness is programmed to do. They think, feel, believe, choose, act, live, and experience as their internal programming dictates.

To avoid leaning too heavily on the robot analogy (and certainly not delve into a zombie-like analogy), you could say that …

Not-so-self-aware individuals live and experience much of their lives on autopilot.

And not-so-self-aware individuals, well, that’s most of us. This means that there’s a good chance it’s me and you and most of the people we know. To put it simply, we have a constriction of consciousness.

Yikes.

It’s no fun to hear / read that it’s like this.

When these things truly dawned on me (Søren), I became more than just angry; I became furious, frustrated, and sad.

In fact, I went through the five typical stages of grief:

– Denial
– Anger
– Bargaining
– Depression
and
– Acceptance.

But after that I moved forward and found the will for change, as well as the execution / creation of that change in practice.

And it worked for me.

So, this (change) is an option we have.
 

Why the Programming of Consciousness May Be Problematic and Create Suffering for Us

The programming of our consciousness limits … everything for us. It provides us with mental and will-oriented blinders. It’s like looking out through a tube – or looking the wrong way through a telescope. We get tunnel vision and can’t see much.

But it’s not just our sight (perspective) that’s affected; it’s our entire consciousness and our will.

Our consciousness programming makes it so that there are many things we can’t understand, many possibilities we can’t see, and many choices we can’t make.

But not only that:

Due to the automation inherent in consciousness programming, we can feel stuck because we tend to make the same choices and act in the same way again and again, even when we try to change it.

What happens when we experience these things – when we, for example, experience that there’s a lot we can’t understand and a lot we’d like to do but can’t? The answer is …
 

The Programming of Consciousness Creates Fear and Makes us Stupid and Weak

The above headline may sound bombastic, but actually it isn’t.

If you want to understand something but can’t because your consciousness is limited by programming, you will feel confused and stupid.

If there’s something you want to do but can’t because of your consciousness programming, you will feel weak and powerless.

If you feel confused, stupid, weak, and powerless, of course you will easily feel afraid. The unhealthy programming of consciuosness creates fear.

But it doesn’t end here.

One of the most important characteristics of fear is that it makes us weak and stupid. A fearful person feels weak and insecure, and fear causes our consciousness (and our body) to contract. We can’t cope with what is happening, so we don’t have the guts to make choices that are different from the choices we’ve always made, and we’re also afraid to be ourselves and make choices that are different from those our surroundings make – and expect.

So in this way a self-reinforcing, negative spiral can easily develop: The more unhealthy consciousness programming we have, the more weakness, stupidity, and fear we will feel … and the more fear we will feel, the more weakness and stupidity we will feel as well.

Actually there are other reasons why consciousness programming creates fear, weakness, and stupidity. Here are those reasons …

Lots of consciousness programming is … wrong. Incorrect. Not in line with truth and reality. Based on flawed information, errors, and misunderstandings.

For those of you interested in the big picture, it is due in part to this:

Almost all consciousness programming is based on relativity and separation, which is not in line with the way things actually work (that-which-is, reality, truth).

The belief in relativity and separation is in itself very fear-inducing.

Furthermore, when we experience unwanted results because there is no coherence between our consciousness programming (e.g., our beliefs) and reality, we experience fear.

But all of this is fairly theoretical, so let’s instead look at an example. The type of consciousness programming we call beliefs is a very good example of these things.

 

An Example of Incorrect Programming: Beliefs

As is well known, a belief is a fairly strong conviction about something. In other words:

A belief is an idea, a guess, about how reality and the truth about something is.

We don’t need a belief about things we’re certain of. For example: We don’t feel any need to believe that we have a belly button.

We only have a belief when we DON’T KNOW how things fit together. A belief is our best guess at exactly that. In other words:

A belief is a theory, a substitute for reality and truth (that-which-is).

A substitute for reality is not reality, and a substitute for truth is not truth. So, no matter what our belief is about, it can never be true, real, or correct.
 

The Programming of Consciousness = Power

There’s no doubt that the biggest problem with all the aforementioned things is that they lead to an unpleasant life experience.

But there are also other problems, including for example that fearful people are easy to manipulate. A fact that power-hungry individuals around the world have always exploited, and continue to exploit.

When you combine that with the fact that through the programming of consciousness you can control people’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, choices, and actions, it becomes very obvious that …

Consciousness programming is a tool of power. One of the most powerful, indeed.

(Regardless of that, we must never forget that the power over our consciousness programming lies in ONE single and specific place, namely within ourselves).

 
 

Consciousness Programming and Humanity Right Now

Given the current state of humanity at this moment in time, it’s fairly problematic that we limit our consciousness and will.

• We currently have around 33 ongoing wars (with 1,000 or more deaths per year). We have the capability to wipe each other out – and nearly all life on Earth – with the push of a button.

• We are increasing in number – there were 370 million of us in 1350 (after the Black Death), but 2 billion in 1930, 4 billion in 1970, and almost 8 billion people on Earth in 2020. It is likely that we – in a sustainable manner – could feed all these people and ensure them clean water, health, housing, education, and other basic necessities if we truly wanted to, but so far, we haven’t.

• Instead, we behave in an unbelievably short-sighted way and create global warming, while at the same time, we are actively depleting, polluting, and otherwise destroying the environment that we are completely dependent on for our survival.

Conclusion:

We need to stop thinking, feeling, believing, choosing, acting, living, and experiencing as we are programmed to do; we need to do these things for OURSELVES, in a completely FREE manner.

We need to open, expand, and elevate our consciousness and liberate our will.

A consciousness that is vast and open, and a will that is free, WORKS (functions) better than the opposite, and it also gives us a better life experience.

 

 

We, humanity, could benefit from functioning in a better way.

We could certainly use more insight into how things (life and ourselves) are interconnected.

We are frustrated, afraid, hurt, and feel powerless, yes, but we don’t have to feel that way because in fact, we are the ones with the power through our consciousness and will, and it would be beneficial for us to really understand that.

With the power we have, through our consciousness and will, we can actually heal ourselves from all sorts of old, heavy, and limiting baggage, including old traumas, shadow aspects, fear, anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, stress, imbalances, various physical ailments, and much more. It would be really good for us to understand this – and put it into practice, because many of the problems we create in the world, we create only because we have problems and imbalances within ourselves.

We could also benefit from an awareness of the fact that when we harm each other and our surroundings, we are actually harming ourselves – and our children.

And finally, we could benefit from understanding who and what we actually are, because when we understand that, we will automatically stop all the unhealthy behavior we currently exhibit.

These insights, this understanding, will be something we gain when we, through inquiry and something as simple as truth, elevate, heal, and expand our consciousness, and liberate our will. (This equals becoming more self-aware).

Right now, we need MORE consciousness and MORE free will. All of us do.

Which will also give us a better life experience!

 

Alright, now that we’ve looked at a lot of characteristics and consequences of consciousness programming, it’s time to ask ourselves …
 

Consciousness Programming: Is It Good or Bad?

At first glance, it seems like an easy question to answer.

We humans aren’t robots. We are living beings with consciousness and will, and it is our greatest desire to have a good life experience.

If consciousness programming weakens us and makes us fearful, stupid, and easy to manipulate, and furthermore, causes us to behave like robots and experience our lives in a robotic manner, then overall, it’s an unpleasant and negative life experience, and it’s therefore logical and reasonable to think that consciousness programming is something bad.

Which is probably the general rule of thumb, if there is one.

But in fact, there is another side to the coin.
 

Consciousness Programming Can Be Useful

Consciousness programming can be both be something good and useful.
 

Good Habits

Good habits like brushing our teeth and washing our hands, for example, are a form of consciousness programming. Just like we can train ourselves to react sensibly to challenging situations, which e.g. is practiced when conducting fire drills at a workplace: We train ourselves to react sensibly in case of a fire.
 

Fair and Reasonable Laws

The laws of a nattion, which are a (relatively mild) form of consciousness programming, are inherently limiting. However, if they are made to be fair and reasonable, they benefit us all.
 

A Relaxed, Supportive Culture

Culture, norms, traditions, and morals constitute a more potent and intrusive form of consciousness programming, and they constrain us — sometimes quite significantly and in a disadvantageous way. However, they also create a sense of community, coherence, and continuity. Culture and similar constructs can be a useful and positive thing if they are relaxed and supportive rather than rigid and oppressive.

So, there are benefits to control and regulation.
 

Limitation as a Soft, Flexible Framework

Think of an artist painting on a canvas.

The size of the canvas is a given, it’s a limitation. But it also makes things easier, knowing how much space you have to work with. You’re given a frame to work and play within. It’s manageable, and the limitation itself can trigger creative opportunities and solutions.

(For instance, I’ve seen some beautiful paintings – by an unknown artist to me – where parts of the frame were also used as part of the painting, which created a stunning effect).

Children, when playing freely, also establish rules, meaning limitations and boundaries, for their play, because it makes for the best type of play. But they also often revise these rules and boundaries to make their play even better. Their boundaries are soft and flexible.

So, limitation has benefits as well.
 

The Programming of Consciousness as Creative Creation

Finally, there’s the crucial phenomenon of creation. Consciousness is both powerful and creative, and we can use it in a positive and constructive way. For example:

When there’s something we’re uncertain about or when we want to ensure that we always think in a certain way, then instead of forming a belief about it, we create a mindset.

In those situations, we can consciously choose to create beliefs and mindsets that minimize limitation while affirming, strengthening, and supporting us as much as possible. A belief or mindset, for example, that says “It’s possible, and I can do it” is far more useful and pleasant than one that says “It’s impossible, and I can’t.”
 

Conclusion: Is Consciousness Programming Good or Bad?

It’s a fact that consciousness programming is controlling, limiting, fear-inducing, and opens us up to manipulation. It is what it is.

Sometimes – often – it’s downright harmful, yet in other ways, it’s useful.

Whether it’s beneficial or detrimental is up to us – it just requires that we take responsibility for our consciousness programming, choose to become aware of it, and then make fully conscious choices about it, which we carry out in our lives.

My concluding point is this …
 

We Determine Our Consciousness Programming (100%)

Programming a human like you or me isn’t the same as programming a computer or smartphone, but it’s comparable. The difference between the computer and us is consciousness, and particularly free will.

For a human with consciousness and free will, consciousness programming typically consists of a series of self-selected and externally acquired beliefs and habits. If they come from outside of us, then we ourselves have chosen to say “yes” to them and incorporate them into our consciousness. We are the ones with the power.

A computer, on the other hand, lacks consciousness and free will, and therefore has no choice. After all, it’s still us humans who program computers (and ourselves), not the other way around.

We would greatly benefit from becoming aware of our consciousness programming – and what it does to us and our lives (including, notably, our life experiences) – and making some new decisions about it, and putting them into practice.

When we do that, we will discover that we have three options for what we can do with our consciousness programming, one of which is far more powerful and useful than the other two.

 

What Do You Want to Read Now?

Go to the ‘Mother Page’ for Consciousness: What Is Consciousness and Why Is It so Important?

Other Pages Related to This Topic

We Are Suffering from a Constriction of Consciousness! (What It Is, What It Does, and How We Get Past It)

Consciousness Revolution

Go to the Article Library: Articles about Personal Development – An Online Library about Consciousness and Personal Development

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