The Amazing Power of Belief
What is belief?
Belief and health.
The great benefits of Neuroplasticity.
The amazing power of belief.
The remarkable placebo effect.
How to change our beliefs.
Relevant points of the presentation.
What are beliefs?
Do you like Italian food? Rap music? Classical Music? Do you go to the movies? Do you drink? Are you a creationist or an evolutionist?
Are you a republican or a democrat? Do you believe in God? Which God? Are you an Atheist? All of these constitute the belief system or systems of thoughts that you keep thinking. They compose the personality that you think you are.
The personality.
Once established as our predominant way of thinking, our beliefs become the programmed thought pattern through which all of our reality is perceived and manifested. We carry them as our curriculum vitae, our identification card; we take them everywhere we go. We present them to the world in any occasion we have, eager to impress, convince, and challenge other beliefs.
The importance of belief.
More people have been killed because of belief than everything else. It is our belief that supports every stand we take. We are our beliefs and when our beliefs are threatened, we are threatened. What we believe constitutes the core of our personality. Our whole life revolves around choices we make based on what we believe. When we believe in something, we limit ourselves to it. Then, it is much more difficult to open our minds, and accept new ideas.
How beliefs are acquired/developed.
Beliefs are acquired and developed predominately in 7 ways:
Trusted Sources:
Beliefs that are perpetuated in families, cities, regions, and countries, are the biggest influence on the development of our own belief systems. We are often overwhelmed with them as we grow up. As children we trust our elders and this prompts us to quickly absorb any belief they have.
Physical experience or “evidence:”
Our acceptance of physical reality and cause and effect is the most impacting interaction we have in physical form. We often form long lasting beliefs from experiences. We burn our hand and form the belief: “fire burns and it is bad.”
Through osmosis:
When we join a certain group in society we begin to think and feel as they do. As we share our time with them, through choice or circumstance, we start to accept their way of thinking, and their beliefs.
Distraction:
In less than one minute of television viewing, a person’s brainwaves switch from Beta waves– brainwaves associated with active, logical thought, 14Hz to 30Hz — to primarily Alpha waves, 8Hz to 14Hz, were the brain is in its most suggestible and receptive mode.
When we are under heavy stress or ill:
Under stress, we are sensitive to suggestion. Sensory deprivationis an easy way to breakdown resistances and open some one to suggestibility. When are heavily stressed we can have an instant transformation in our belief system. People who are very ill, or close to dying often become believers in God, hence the famous saying: ”there are no atheists in fox holes.”
When we are hypnotized:
Hypnosis is a proven phenomenon of the power of suggestibility. In this state of mind our personality is partially or totally turned off and any suggestion goes directly into the unconscious mind. A good hypnotist can help change a deep-rooted belief system in minutes.
Conditioning:
We also build our belief systems from intentional and unintentional conditioning. Behaviorists think that “condition behavior” is the only component in our personality: that all of our belief systems have been created through “stimulus response.” In simple words, that we have been trained to be the way we are through reward and punishment, like we often train our pets.