Recently I was attending a local mastermind event in Durham, ON., with good friends, discussing the topic of faith. As often the case, in preparation for the meeting we agreed on reading some inspirational material from the book Think and Grow Rich, where Napoleon Hill dedicated an entire chapter to this topic. During our friendly conversation, a small debate ensued on the difference in meaning between the words faith and belief. Have you noticed that in common language, these terms are used almost interchangeably? Napoleon Hill himself is credited with the infamous phrase: “whatever the mind can conceive, and bring itself to believe, it can achieve“. So why didn’t he call the chapter Belief instead? Does he ever clarify the semantics for us?
In fact, there are several spots in this book where the two terms are used together; or where either of the terms appear to be employed more selectively. Because there are a few select passages where Mr. Hill does explains the difference, I conclude he was very deliberate in his application of the language we are considering. It is beyond the scope of this article to analyze every single use of these terms for accuracy, only to point out what I believe his intent was behind their application. Next, I will compare these observations to what Thoth spoke to me about during the writing of my book. Finally, I’ll draw whatever conclusions appear reasonable, especially if they offer a level of practical application that we can use to enrich our lives.
The first passage, located in the “Faith” chapter states: “You may CONVINCE the subconscious mind that you believe you will receive that for which you ask, and it will act upon that belief, which your subconscious mind passes back to you in the form of “FAITH,” followed by definite plans for procuring that which you desire.” Notice the sequence here: first comes “belief”, and then “faith”. As if the former is a deliberate state of mind we enter into, which is then returned by our subconscious as something, shall we say, of higher vibrational frequency?
Further in the same chapter, Hill says: “Scepticism, in connection with ALL new ideas, is characteristic of all human beings. But if you follow the instructions outlined, your scepticism will soon be replaced by belief, and this, in turn, will soon become crystallized into ABSOLUTE FAITH. Then you will have arrived at the point where you may truly say, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!”“. In this passage, one must first understand what Hill was referring to with respect to certain “instructions” given to the reader, namely auto-suggestion. Since he also devotes an entire chapter on this topic, I will simply summarize that auto-suggestion is a form of self-hypnosis, with the intent of “suggesting” a belief, which then penetrates the subconscious mind. In other words, faith is making one’s belief unconscious and automatic. Note for later reference, auto-suggestion can also be used to create automatic behaviors (not only beliefs) as well, which we commonly refer to as habits. And to become the “captain of one’s soul”, Hill’s great formula might read: whatever the mind can conceive, and become unconsciously competent in believing or doing, one will acquire faith in it’s achievement – which will irreversibly lead to it’s achievement.
At this point, I’d like to break away from Napoleon Hill’s great book and examine another (great) book, which I was inspired to write after having a dialogue directly with Thoth, who was channeled to me from an amazing spiritual teacher. Dr. Madalyn Kennedy and I met through our mutual interest in life coaching, and to my delight, she agreed to channel her spiritual sources to me as I wrote: Making it Home. What follows, is a recording of me and Thoth discussing the creative potential of humans and the practical implications of activating one’s sacral chakra, or creative energy center.
As this blog represents the first time that I’ve publicly shared my recording of Thoth, or other spiritual sources from my book, let me briefly reflect the experience. I’ll never forget the feeling I had when Thoth first responded to my questions over the phone. It was like someone had shone a flashlight through the telephone line, and the message was somehow transmitted through this light, which then penetrated my mind, body, and soul. At best, you too will feel this energy signature of Thoth, and at least find it intriguing to consider that Thoth’s energy has never left our home, or planet. As Thoth pointed out in this recording: “All there is in the universe is thought, and energy, and it is all combined as one”.
After listening to it, did you observe any similarity in Thoth’s recording about the creative process and our earlier lesson from Napoleon Hill? We can repeat Hill’s summary of the process as: desire, then belief, followed by faith; whereas Thoth and I discussed the process to be: desire, then belief, followed by trust. Now, in the recording you may have caught the beginning of another segment, where I started to ask Thoth a second question. You’ll have to read my book to see how I “kicked around” Thoth’s ideas and eventually reconciled “faith = belief + trust.” As an aside, where in my dialogue with Thoth did the idea of “trust” first originate? Actually it began in a discussion with Maitreya, in the previous chapter of my book. This is when I learned that trust is cultivated from the consciousness of our lower, root chakra. Only now am I making the observation how energy “cycles” from one’s lower chakra into the next highest level – in this case building on trust. This insight certainly seems to fit what we just heard Thoth describe: “all energy wheels (chakras) work together as one”.
Hopefully I didn’t lose you just now, jumping between Hill’s and Thoth’s, explanation of the creative process, and then adding a third observation with respect to how feelings of trust connect the two lower chakras (root and sacral). Honestly, part of the fun writing blogs is to make fresh observations and create new knowledge on behalf of the writer. As long as you also gained more appreciation for the progression from belief to faith, I’m pleased. If you also gained an understanding this process is really about progressing in consciousness, then I’m ecstatic. By all means, share your thoughts and observations below, so we can all create knowledge and have fun!
So what can we deduce of a practical nature from this conversation? Let me share a concept I once learned that helps create a visual representation of the semantics for belief and trust. Imagine a radar scope, such as the kind you might find an air traffic controller use to track airplanes. What the controller sees on their scope are planes, essentially that are within a certain known range. This person will have a reasonably strong belief these planes exist, after-all “seeing is believing” in this scenario. However, if you asked the controller whether there are other planes beyond the scope of what is visible, they will answer yes! But why? Because over time and experience this veteran has acquired faith that planes can travel beyond the radar’s scope. This may seem like a trivial example, because obviously planes can travel farther than we can see! But what happens if for some unknown reason the controller was expecting a plane to show up on his/her screen and it wasn’t there to see? For example, based on a flight schedule of sorts, they predicted that the plane would be in their scope? It might even be unsettling for the controller, if the schedule variance was long enough to be concerned, especially if the flight was over the Bermuda Triangle (joking)! What this illustrates, is that faith requires more of a feeling, and belief is evidence based.
As an example of this, someone might ask if I believe that Thoth was speaking in this blog’s recording? My answer is that at the beginning of this dialogue my belief was low, because there was little evidence to support the idea I was speaking with a spiritual entity, not visible to the naked eye. Yet, I held my faith just long enough, with a hopeful mind, until more evidence emerged. When I started to understand the truth and wisdom concerning ideas presented in this blog, my belief increased. This blog is evidence to me that whomever is claiming to be Thoth is also guiding me towards self-knowledge. So you see, there is a wonderful interplay between belief and faith… that one must first believe with just enough trust to support their faith (believing is seeing), until the idea becomes self-evident, which increases one’s belief (seeing is believing). I trust this cycle another nuance to Hill’s expression: “and bring itself to believe”, and why belief is not enough (to achieve).
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