Oh, and Fred: I had to keep the title short, and that's why I expanded on it in the opening post. No, you don't GET what you perceive. You get the life you perceive. There is a major difference there. It doesn't mean that if you think people are criminals, you'll get held up all the time, or that if you think life is threatening, you'll break your leg. If there was any protection against being robbed by believing that everyone is a robber, I suppose that there would at least some benefit in believing that. But, other than using reasonable caution in your relationship with others, and the situations you put yourself in, there's no realistic way to avoid getting hurt (or robbed.) Or, getting cancer, or being in a car accident. You take normal precautions to reduce the risk. Truly evil people may get away with everything (including murder) and seem to be living a happy life, while wonderful, loving, generous people may be stricken down with a terminal illness. Like the woman we visit who is one the most generous, loving, modest people I've ever met who woke up blind one morning. She percieves God as good and believes in the basic goodness of people, so she finds a lot of joy in what might seem to others as a prison of darkness. Someone else experiencing the same thing might become bitter and depressed.
It's how you percieve your life that strongly influences the way you live it (as freda pointed out) and how you relate to other people.

Jerry