This week our subject is the genie within. If you look at Goodreads for quotes from authors, the first one you find under my name says this, “The absolutely awesome incredible power of belief is the genie in your life.” Indeed, in my book, “I Believe: When What You Believe Matters,” the bottom line take-away after examining all of the science can be stated this way, “Everything you believe matters!”
Negative Spiritual Beliefs
Imagine this: within you there is an awesome force with a potential creative power that can express your fears and worries just as quickly as your desires and ambitions. Indeed, just this past week a new study announced, “Negative spiritual beliefs are associated with more pain and worse physical, mental health.” The researchers found that folks who felt it was their Karma suffered much more than those with no such belief. In other words, if your belief system includes the idea that disease and sickness are trials or punishment, then the suffering will be much more intense. Now that makes perfect sense when you think about it because expectation becomes perception!
Let me flesh that out some. Many believe the reason the Incan’s were taken in by the Conquistadors was due to a prophecy regarding the arrival of the gods. The late scientist, Candace Pert, argued that when the Incan’s first saw the arriving Spanish ships they believed the prophecy was coming true as they had never seen ships like this before. They had no frame of reference and as such, when the men with what appeared to be golden hats started to come ashore, what they saw were gods walking on water. Because of the belief there was no resistance until it was too late. Expectation, that of the imminent arrival of gods based on prophecy, led to in this fatal perception.
Hard Wired Brains
Over and over research informs us that what you truly believe is what you manifest! Now understand, what you manifest is based on your perception, so there is a circularity here. Recent studies have shown that there is a difference in brains between the optimistic and others. In a headline appearing in Medical Daily, we are instructed that, “Optimist Or Pessimist? Brain Scans Show Positive And Negative People Really Do Think Differently.” 1
The study revealed not only a different hard-wiring, but the necessity of a different approach when helping your pessimistic friends. You can’t just tell them to be positive for that strategy won’t work. Instead the approach should be one of evaluating the problem in a reasonable manner.
Just as we are hard wired in ways that direct our optimism, we are hard wired to believe. The brain is a believing machine and I have blogged on this one before, so suffice it to say, our very nature requires that we believe! We must rely on our understanding of the world or we will go crazy—literally! Imagine how you would behave if you disbelieved gravity and were ever prepared for its sudden suspension. We must believe our mothers will care for us or we could never find peace, even as a tiny infant. So believe we do!
Belief Creates Fact
Franz Anton Mesmer taught the world a great lesson. Using magnets he was able to manipulate our so-called animal magnetic properties. He could magnetize a tree and lead a patient to the tree and the patient would instantly be cured. The number of cures Mesmer is reported as achieving are nothing short of miraculous. But it turned out that Mesmer’s magnets were not curing anything—it was the power of the authority and the subjects own suggestibility that brought about the cure. Belief in the cure was the cure! Expectation preceding perception once again, or as William James, the great American philosopher put it, “Belief creates the actual fact!”
In the delightful book, “Kidding Ourselves,” by Joseph Hallinan, this sort of cure is called the “medicine of imagination.” Placebo research has demonstrated that given the right authority, some placebos are as effective or more so than the real treatment. Indeed, according to Hallinan, many of today’s so called wonder treatments are themselves nothing more than Mesmer’s magnets. Hallinan is specific about some, including tapping and acupuncture. To support his case, he reviews a famous study where subjects were told they were being treated by acupuncture when in fact they were only touched by toothpicks. The group receiving the toothpick treatment received every bit the same relief as the group receiving acupuncture. 2
Prescribing Placebos
In my new book, “Gotcha,” some startling numbers are revealed by way of the number of physicians that routinely prescribe placebos for their patients. This is a worldwide phenomena and in the UK, 97% of the doctors surveyed reported prescribing placebos. Now why would they do that? Because it works!
Bottom line, belief precedes expectation which leads to perception and perception is all we have!
Thanks for the read,
Eldon Taylor
Provocative Enlightenment
NY Time Bestselling Author of Choices and Illusions
www.eldontaylor.com
Sources:
1 Optimist Or Pessimist? Brain Scans Show Positive And Negative People Really Do Think Differently
2 Kidding Ourselves: The Hidden Power of Self-Deception