What are beliefs?
'[We] go around actively searching for things to see and..."see" mainly those things that were expected.' (1)English neuroanatomist Dr J. Z. Young
'And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.'
Matthew 21:22
We are starting to appreciate the power (and susceptibility to damage by excessive stress) of the cerebrum, through its acquisition, manipulation and application of patterns in the development of behaviour.
Now patterns or symbols brought to our consciousness called thoughts (and dreams) are the seeds of behaviour. And thoughts are the product of direct (external) and indirect (internal) experience. This means all the information we gather from the environment through the sensors of our body and from our memory (or garden of the mind) leads to the creation of thoughts which can be made to produce, control and nurture our behaviour.
For example, we can all generate thoughts that make us feel angry or thoughts that make us feel happy and, depending on how emotional and intensely visual the thoughts are, act accordingly if we wish.
Nothing is more evident of this observation than by looking at children and how they play. When children see something they like, it is common for them to imitate what they see and later imagine through play-acting.
For adults, we show behaviour through our emotions when we see something or imagine something capable of moving us deeply enough. Whether it be a romantic scene or a monster suddenly appearing out of know where, it is the same the world over for everyone. Our thoughts affect our behaviour.
What's the purpose of thoughts?
The purpose of having thoughts is so that we may adapt quickly to ourselves and to the environment by controlling our behaviour.
Luckily most of our thoughts can be changed, together with their corresponding behaviour and action. Yet there are behaviours that are more involuntary, more habitual. They exist because a thought, whether or not it was derived through balanced thinking, has been dwelled upon repetitively for long periods of time or has a strong emotional connotation, which leads to a strong memory imprint of that lingering thought and its corresponding behaviour and action in the cerebral cortex. This strong memory imprint in the brain leads to an almost instinctive behaviour or habit called a belief.
Beliefs are merely well-reinforced thoughts or strong patterns etched firmly in the brain and made concrete to the individual through the process of thinking/learning/performing.
Our reptilian brain also contains beliefs
When we talk of beliefs, we mean more than just the everyday patterns we learn from experience and knowledge throughout our lives. Real instinctive and innate behaviours such as our need to procreate and other 'hard-wired' activities in the brain stem and midbrain sections are also beliefs formed during evolution. These have been learned so well and have been so fundamental to the survival of the human species that the beliefs have been faithfully recorded in the genes.
The fact that these hard-wired beliefs have become so valuable to our survival and have been used so regularly can be physically observed as large bulbs of neuronal matter coming off the brain stem owing to their extensive usage over millions of years. (2)
Also, as a general rule of thumb, beliefs with similar kinds of information tend to be stored in the same region of the brain. Beliefs with quite distinct kinds of information are often stored in different regions of the brain. And the more beliefs that are encoded in the brain, the greater the complexity and size of the brain. Also there are complementary beliefs that tend to counteract the effects of other beliefs, such as the left-brain counteracting the effects of the right-brain and vice versa.
Why do we need beliefs?
Beliefs are an important and necessary part of our lives. They help us to survive in times of great crisis and stress (ie. periods of intense problem-solving).
One benefit associated with procuring and maintaining beliefs is through the rapid adaptation to oneself and/or the environment via immediate changes in behaviour of a pre-programmed nature. For example, if a predator comes running in your direction, you cannot afford to sit around and think about what would be a suitable behavioural response. There is simply no time to think about the situation. So you must rely on your beliefs to create and immediate behavioural response in order to maximise your survival.
Another benefit of acquiring and nurturing beliefs is to protect the mind against a barrage of irrelevant information that would otherwise be accepted as true and recorded faithfully by the brain like a photographic camera.
And yet another benefit in having beliefs is to help free up the conscious part of the brain to perform other tasks. The brain is like a parallel-processing machine. Once something has been learned and thoroughly imprinted in the brain, the behaviour formed by it can be enacted almost involuntarily or subconsciously without needing to think about it any further. Once something can be done without thinking, the mind is free to do other things at the same time.
Are all beliefs good for us?
Yet whatever beliefs we have, whether they are highly instinctual or not, they must be considered no more than assumptions. Beliefs are a collection of prejudices. They literally control the way we think, feel and do things. In fact, the development of our entire personality is firmly based on the complete set of our most trusted and deepest beliefs acquired throughout our lifetime and in evolution.
We developed our beliefs and allowed them to prosper because we perceived reality in a certain way and have found them to be the most effective beliefs in dealing with this perceived reality as needed for our survival. But there could have been other ways of surviving. Beliefs are merely assumptions.
Yet there are many people who believe that their view of the world based on their belief system, especially those acquired during their lifetime, is the right way and the only way and that everyone else must conform to this view regardless of how others may see the same things in a slightly different way.
This is the major disadvantage of beliefs. We simply do not know how balanced our beliefs are and how well they represent reality. And because we tend to be so trusting of all our beliefs, whether they are right or not, we cannot see how they affect our behaviour and the behaviour of others.
Anyone who supports their beliefs too strongly (as reflected in their behaviour) to the point of believing they are the right and only way become less openminded to new ways of thinking, feeling and doing things. In order to become more adaptable and openminded, it is important for all of us to improve our belief systems.
How do we change our beliefs?
Changing our beliefs can only be achieved by learning. Learning, whether by acquiring knowledge or experiencing life in a different way, is necessary for us to stop stringently upholding any of the beliefs we gather in life.
Life is a learning experience. If we do not learn to ameliorate our beliefs and expand our perspective on life, then there is one thing you can be assured of. As German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) said: 'The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history'. We will repeat the same mistakes of the past. And this could be detrimental to the survival of the human species.
Remember, accrued beliefs have enormous power over people. Whatever we believe and accept as true will be reflected in our experiences. If we think the world is good, the world will be perceived as good and all we will see and want to remember is good; if we think the world is bad, the world will be perceived as bad and all we will see and want to remember is bad. If we want to see the good in people and everything in the universe, then remember:
'...whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, think/meditate on these things.' (3)
As the great Roman philosopher and sage Marcus Aurelius, said, 'A man's life is what his thoughts make of it'. America's leading philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 'A man is what he thinks all day long'. And in the book of Proverbs 23:7, 'For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.'
Our minds are like magnets. And our hearts (emotions) reinforce what is in our minds. We attract into our lives whatever we believe in our minds and feel in our hearts.
Should you ever experience on a regular basis some kind of negative event in your life, look at what you say to yourself everyday and the beliefs you hold. Is it right? To change your experience, you must think and believe in different things. Then, by acting on your thoughts and beliefs and seeing how more positive it is for you, you will over time attract the right things in your life to help reinforce your new thoughts and beliefs. We call this the law of attraction.
If you want to change your situation, the key is to learn something different so you can change your beliefs to something better and more positive. When you find the right beliefs (you will know when the beliefs are right), this will in turn attract different things into your life to help support what you believe.
NOTE: Thoughts, feelings and actions have to be aligned to the new beliefs for the law of attraction in the right area to work properly.
Our beliefs dictate whether people are likely to get mental illness or not
Therefore, the real reason for why mental illness arises in society is because we all hold certain unbalanced and inaccurate beliefs that tells us how to solve problems in a very limited way (ie. the L-brain approach) and we use those beliefs to justify our expectation of others that they should see the problems and the solutions in the same way.
It is truly our beliefs that is controlling how we view the world around us and other people, how we think, and how we should solve problems, as well as the essence of all common behaviours characteristic of left-and right-brain dominant people. If we wish to change our approach to things in order to reflect a more balanced and complete view of life, then we must change, modify and/or widen our beliefs. (4)
Are beliefs easy to change?
Fortunately most beliefs are fairly easy to change, so long as we are aware of them and know how they are reinforced, and if we can deal with them quickly. However, modifying extremely long-held beliefs is no easy task. Without a person's full consent to accept change, it would require a lot of effort. Even violence does not guarantee a change in people's beliefs. No argument, emotional appeal, or physical action can persuade us to change from within our beliefs of enduring quality. It is only through acceptance, love and the provision of quality and enjoyable experiences, knowledge and the skills of effective learning that a person can be given the power to change.
As Marilyn Ferguson once remarked:
'No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or by emotional appeal.' (5)
Ultimately it is up to the individual and society as a whole to choose whether or not to accept a change in one's beliefs as well as ensuring that the environment is set up correctly and in a balanced way to make things conducive for change.
