t know about yet. And even though it would seem that free

129 130 Building a Framework for Understanding Ourselves money would be a powerful incentive to question one's belief that it doesn't exist, it wasn't enough for this man. His beliefs obviously did not allow him to even remotely consider the possibility, again creating this closed loop, leading him to believe that what he ended up with or experienced out of this situation was the true nature of his existence, when all it really was was a reflection of the true nature of his beliefs and how they manage environmental information.

Beliefs define the parameters in which we perceive environmental information. All definitions by definition create boundaries. Beliefs will manage information in various ways to maintain a balance between the inner and outer environment. Any perceived imbalance will result in some degree of either stress or illusion. In maintaining a balance, many of our responses to environmental conditions are automatic because our beliefs make the response seem self-evident, when, in fact, under any given set of environmental conditions alternate experiences exist along side of the experiences our beliefs locked us into. By inhibiting the flow of information into the mental system, beliefs do exactly what they are supposed to do. They limit our awareness of data so that we can learn in stages. If we believe that things exist in only one particular way, then our beliefs will act as a natural mechanism to block the acceptance of any conflicting information.

Considering or accepting any new or conflicting information would open up choices that we ordinarily would not have to consider. Too many choices too soon can cause confusion and mental overload. If it were not for the limiting nature of beliefs, what would happen to our minds would probably be similar to what it would be like if a television set picked up all the information being broadcast from all the TV stations and projected that information on to the screen simultaneously on the same channel. Beliefs allow us to tune into one channel of environmental information at a time so that we can learn about the nature of the environment through that one channel. Then we can expand our awareness to pick up another channel as we learn how to deal with the additional choices we are confronted with as we become aware of the additional possibilities.