Day 31 - sceptics and believers

There are 2 types of people on this planet.

Spectators and players.

But 2 more interesting groups are sceptics and believers.

What differentiates a sceptic and a believer?

Ignorance, I think.

But ignorance is such an ugly word. The human condition it represents is something to be suffered, not sported. Yet the bravado with which some people can display their ignorance can sometimes match the word for unpleasantness.

How do you open someone's eyes to something they have never experienced, and cannot touch, taste or smell? Especially when you care about the person so much that it becomes a mission in life to introduce them to this new possibility.

Last night I took two of my best friends to a talk about the Landmark Forum, an event which now holds real prominence in my past, and will forever shape my present and future. I also took my sister, who loved it.

But Friend1 is a fund manager. And Friend2 is a stockbroker. Both rich young men.

One got it. One didn't.

Words aside, that is the impression I got - that is the perception they created.

Some things in life are so real, and so tangible, yet so difficult to grasp, that all your usual behavioural instincts such as sarcasm, humour and flippancy are exposed for being exactly what they are - shields of ignorance.

And in this precise instance, nothing fails like success.

How can a sceptic be turned?

I think it's by showing them how operating as a believer is always the winning way to play. In fact, it's the only way to play.

But to show this you must first explain that the above pathway to success is very, very real. And the problem with doing that is the pathway has nothing to do with society's conventional methods of equating success. Money. Power. Job title. Status. It's almost impossible to convey to a person who has achieved these things without establishing a spiritual identity how meaningless they really are.

And how meaningful something can be that you have to simply experience rather than purchase, indulge in etc.

And that's the thing. Sceptics have to know before they believe.

To them, Knowing is trusting.

But trust has nothing to do with knowledge.

And to be on the field of play is to trust all around you until that trust is abused.

That is why it is so intimidating being out there. So frightening.

And rewarding.

That is why the stands are full of sceptics, and the field of play full of believers.

Sceptics, by definition, cannot be players.

And that is why so few people in this world who think they are happy in the stands, never experience the ecstacy of being on the field of play.

Belief is real. And it transforms the dull to the bright, the bright into the shining, and the shining into the incandescent...

I won't stop standing for it.

Or my pals.

Writing time: 5 hours

Manifestation: 100%