Beliefs determine how we see, interact and experience the world around us. Beliefs are ideas that are made after repetition and contemplation, that are accepted as truth and reality and therefore impact how we see life.

Belief and knowledge are often in conflict. The difference might be subtle, but substantial. Knowledge is something that you and others, who might be considered experts in that field, consider to be true and there is reasonable, plausible, and provable scientific explanation for that knowledge.

A belief on the other hand is based on personal experience or pure faith.

Too many people require you to accept their belief based on blind faith. Belief is not knowledge and therefore usually not provable beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Remember, it wasn’t long ago that people believed the world was flat, and that we thought women were witches, hunted them down, and burned them.

Welcome to belief, which is based on superstitions, or blindness.

Stupid humans who once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that it was flat. Really it demonstrated that what really was FLAT was the human ability to think outside the box and perceive something that others could not perceive.

When scientists discovered great things, hundreds of years ago, they were imprisoned, tortured and murdered. The Catholic Church did not want people to see beyond, and therefore stopped the voices of these researchers.

Actually, during that time in history it was thought to be common knowledge that these ancient flat world beliefs were true. Even though humankind was sincere in its ignorant beliefs, those beliefs were false and by not believing as the others told you to, you were subject to arrest, imprisonment, and torture which often lead to death.

Times have changed. Today, things that you believe have changed, and you may believe in something so firmly that you count it as knowledge. When, in fact, there may be considerable evidence from the past experience that a particular belief is a truth,” its only truth for you from your personal experience. Just because you believe it is true, does not make it true. Although it might become a truth for you personally, by believing it you are limiting yourself by holding on to self-limiting beliefs.

The trick is to pull back the veneer and see the real truth. That is one that is universal and does not need to be believed, it just is. These are referred to as universal truths. They exist and work beyond our own self-limiting beliefs. They shape and work through the universe and in our lives.

Gravity is a truth. Believe in it or not. Its still a real truth. If you drop something it will fall to the ground. If you trip, and fall, you could hurt your butt. You can only fall DOWN, you don’t fall up.

Now this is only a truth that exists here on Earth under normal circumstances. There are other forces that can resist this law such as a strong wind. You may have been programmed since childhood to believe things that you thought to be true – but, once you realized that they were not true, you may have wondered why you wasted time and energy believing in them at all.

Take the case of Santa Claus. You believed he was real. You believed that by some mystical miracle he went around the world in one night and brought presents to every well-behaved child. You may have further believed that he ate the burnt cookies you left for him and he drank that horrible lactose free milk. You believe that it was all related to your doing good things and not bad things, and that Santa was well, almost like God!

There was potent evidence to your faith:

Your parents told you he was real. (You trusted your parents without question)

The cookies were disappeared and the milk glass was empty. Even the crumbs disappeared.

There were presents under the Christmas tree in the morning.

You saw Santa at the supermarket, and you had a picture of Santa to prove it.

Your friends believed in him also.

All of this evidence pointed toward knowledge, you just knew he existed. It pointed to a truth in that not only did you know he existed, everyone around you knew also. This belief as you found out was not true. It had shaped your view of the world as a child and still may have a lingering impact on your current belief system.

The point is that there are other things that you may believe are true, but are not. You have been told things all your life for a variety of reasons: to make you feel better, to be funny, to hurt you, because other people believed it was true, and for other noble and not so noble reasons. You made the choice whether to believe what was being told you. You weighed this information and decided whether it fit or not into your already existing belief system. You either rejected the idea straight out, accepted it as part of what you already believed, or it changed your belief system.

Beliefs are very powerful, and they do shape our reality. If you believe in something strong enough, it becomes real in your life. There is a universal law that states that likes attract like. If you believe in something strong enough it not only becomes your reality, it attracts similar things to your life.

Suppose you believe you are clumsy. Your parents said you were clumsy, your coach as school did and so did your friends. They told you that you were an accident waiting to happen. You thought this to be true. Your whole life you tripped over your shadow. Not only did you believe this, but you also created that reality and circumstances of being clumsy.

Examine your beliefs and draw back the veil. Well, Ill be. They seem to have constantly hypnotized me to trip myself up — all my life — well, I’ll be! And, then – you don’t have to be! It’s all your belief.

Dr. Jay Polmar, author of Thinkright, was a teacher and instructor at colleges and universities in the Southwest and Hawaii about the quality and power of Thought being an active force in creating the quality of your life. Learn more in Thinkright.

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For those of you who are new to mortgages or new to the process of applying for a home loan, this article will be a valuable resource to introduce you to the basic fixed rate mortgage. This is one of the easier mortgages to understand and also relatively easy to calculate. A basic understanding of the fixed rate mortgage will help you understand how other mortgage products may differ from the fixed rate, but also help you to ask intelligent questions when speaking with and evaluating a loan officer you may potentially be working with.

These fixed rate mortgages are the most common type of mortgage product. They are not the only type of product, of course, by they are very prevalent. When people speak about getting a home loan, they are usually referring to this type of loan. The fixed rate mortgage product is the one that is probably advertised the most, at least with most state laws, the advertising you’ll here on the radio or see on TV or other media is typically providing information about their lowest fixed rate product.

The most common fixed rate mortgage is a 30 year mortgage. There are also other options including a 15, 20 and even a 40 year mortgage product. This may change in the future as well, but these are the most typical offers you’ll see when evaluating your options. The longer the mortgage term, the lower your interest rate may be, but you’ll typically pay more in interest over the life of the loan. This is why you’ll see a 15 year mortgage with a higher rate than a 30 year mortgage typically. The payments for a 15 year are higher as well simply because the loan amount may not change and to pay off your home in a shorter period, it will require higher monthly payments. Simple math I know, but better to not assume too much.

Fixed rate mortgages have the same payment for each period. The benefit here is that you are able to base your monthly budget or even bi-weekly budget from the amount you’ll be paying each month towards your mortgage. Because the rate doesn’t change, neither does the monthly payment. This makes the fixed rate mortgage very predictable.

There are several loan products or mortgage programs that have what is known as a “balloon” payment where payments are made either directly to the interest as in the case of an interest only loan or even interest and principal with a lump sum due at the end of a given period (usually a couple of years). The fixed rate mortgage is different in this regard, at least the traditional style of mortgage here this article discusses. When you pay off your mortgage with a fixed rate mortgage, you owe nothing more to the bank or lender. There is no need to refinance your home or come up with cash to pay towards a lump sum payment or balloon payment. This style of mortgage is probably the most conservative of the various mortgage products.

With a fixed rate mortgage, a percentage of your payments each month will go towards the interest and the rest will go towards the principal. This is not an even amount. What I mean is that the the first few years of your mortgage, the majority of the monthly payment goes to pay the interest and the smaller percentage goes towards the principal. Of course you can make extra payments on the principal which means the interest payment will decrease simply because the interest paid is done so on the balance, which if you pay more towards the principal above and beyond the monthly payment, there will be a lower balance due and less interest. This doesn’t mean your monthly payment will change, but it will decrease the amount of interest due and increase the percentage of your payment that is applied to paying down the principal.

This conservative mortgage program is possibly the easiest to understand of the mortgage products that are available. The key to success with this style or any other style of mortgage is to find a loan officer that you can trust who will guide you through the process of pricing loans, understanding the terms of a loan, whether a fixed rate, variable, interest-only, or other loan, and basically someone you can work with who can become familiar with your situation and provide appropriate advice for what your home ownership goals and objectives are. A good loan officer will typically be familiar with other loan products that will work for you as well.

Brian Armstrong is a licensed loan officer in the state of Utah. He actively promotes information about Utah mortgage rates on his website. You can also find some detailed information about the services and types of home loans Brian offers from his website about mortgages in Salt Lake City.