Law of Projection

The Opening
Watercolour by Beverly Blanchard

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players; they have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. – Shakespeare

We like to think that we are all living in the same world but we are not.  There are as many worlds as there are minds, because every mind lives within their own world.  Simply put the Law of Projection states that everything you see outside of yourself is but a projection created by you.  In other words, you have written the script and you are the camera, director, projector and audience.  Through your script, all the characters and actors are all showing up by invitation. 

Most people do not realize that what is happening in their lives is a direct result of their perception, beliefs, expectations and thinking.  Once again, they would prefer to blame the problems in their lives or the world on outer circumstances.  It is your thinking that is creating your reality.  You decide what you will see before you see it.  Is your movie an academy performance?  Or is it a horror flick?  If you do not like the movie you have chosen, perhaps it is time to change the script, call central casting and request new actors.

All outward appearances of your world begin with your inward conditions.  Your state of mind creates your perception of what you will see in your world and projects it out into your reality.    Everything in this world is filtered through the eye of the beholder.  If you see the world as happy it is because internally that is what is inside you.  If you see the world filled with hostile people it is because internally that is what is inside you.  Whatever it is you are feeling is projected on your screen of reality.

In many cases, if our movie is focused on the negative, it is usually because there is something that we do not want to admit is inside ourselves.  Instead what we often do is rant about the person or situation.  They are this and they are that so that we never really have to deal with our own deep-seated feelings, perceptions and beliefs.  We do this because it keeps us safe, and in identifying what we do not like in someone else we somehow feel better about ourselves.  We also do this because we use our past situations and events to define our future.

I ran into a young woman the other day who was telling me she was going back to school in the fall.  She was quite excited about it until she started telling me about the problems she expected to encounter with the other students.  She figured that unlike her, most of students were not going to be there because they wanted to learn.  Most of them would have their parents paying their way and would probably spend their time talking in class and being disruptive.  She was going there to learn and if any disruptions happened she was going to put them in their place.  I tried to interject in her tirade with a casual comment that perhaps she should go in with an open mind and maybe she would find other students who were also interested in learning.  My interjection was met with another rant about how she was being realistic, and she knew how things were going to be.  Here it was April and she had already projected problems for a class that was not starting until September.  She had already decided that she would encounter problems with the other students based on her past experiences.  Her past was defining her future, and she was now setting out to validate her chosen reality.  Perhaps on another level, she was simply projecting her own disinterest in school.

Everything in this world is a projection by you.  Our movies can be based on a past picture which we keep running in our head or we can change the script and approach each day with no preconceived notions.  You have a choice to create a movie that sees a friendly world or a hostile world.  The reality is both of them are there and neither of them is there.  It is up to you to choose which movie your want on your screen?

Here are some exercises you may want to try:

1.  Remove the movie marquee.  Make it a habit of starting everyday without any preconceived scenarios.  Life is not a series of dress rehearsals rehashing the same script.  Act like you are on stage for the first time and experience everything as though it was happening for the first time.

2.  Get into the habit of using visualizations to match your affirmations.  Spend a few minutes each day mentally reviewing your life as if your dreams have already come true.

3.  Much of what we are projecting into this world is based on our own judgments.  Next time you are seeing something in someone else that you do not like ask yourself the following questions:  Does what I see in others really belong to me?  Is my vision clear or clouded by what I want to see?

If you would like to understand this law better check out this youtube by Hans Wilhelm on the Law of Projection.