What you believe to be, is. As simple as that and as complex, for once you understand that statement, freedom is yours.
A belief is mental acceptance of something as being true. That acceptance can be based on trust for an authority, on reason, or on prejudice. A belief can also be a thing that has been programmed or conditioned by outside agencies so that the acceptance is not supported by reason but acted on nevertheless as though the thing were totally reliable.
Belief is a powerful force. There are occurrences, nicely documented by Deirdre Davis Brigham in her excellent work, ‘Imagery for Getting Well,’ (W.W. Norton & Co. 1994,) that substantiate the idea that believing in a thing often brings it about.
She notes that in cases of multiple personality it is not uncommon for one personality to have diabetes, and a second or third personality, of the same person, who displays a normal production of insulin and blood sugar showing no signs of the disease at all. Another case noted is that of personality number one who had a case of the flu with all its attending symptoms, difficulty in breathing, congested chest, running nose, and laryngitis. When personality number two came out all the symptoms disappeared in just about six seconds. No congestion, no running nose, no symptoms of the flu. Same body, two different beliefs.
JUST CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT.
If your mind can clear the flu from your body in six seconds — if your mind can normalize your blood sugar in six seconds, then your mind can free your body of virtually all problems. All you have to do is to learn how to control it. Central to that control is the understanding of your belief system. A belief system is a series of frames of reference by which an individual lives, accepting information that reinforces beliefs, and rejecting information that conflicts. As a simple example, say that you believe a particular food is bad for you. A progression of inner works take place when you eat that food. Let’s examine the chain of events that occur in
such a situation.
Ed Krueger is about to consume a chili dog. It consists of white forces created by Ed’s belief and expectation. Ed’s body is not reacting to bad food, only to the belief the food is bad. Belief overrides logic, for the mind accepts only information that reinforces the belief. Information in conflict with the belief is rejected. Constant reinforcement of a faulty belief strengthens it, day by day, month by month, year by year, until the belief becomes an integral part of the person’s experience. New beliefs are tested through the faulty belief, thereby compounding problems.
The first step toward correcting false beliefs is the realization that belief systems exist, that they affect the reality of the individual, and that they can be changed. To effect a change in a belief system, you must achieve a greater awareness. There are those who believe themselves to be capable of limited achievement.
Some believe themselves to be incapable of any achievement whatever, and, through the daily routines and rituals of life, they reinforce those beliefs daily and in some cases hourly bread in the form of a hot dog bun, a frankfurter with chili over the top, and under the meat a spoonful of pickled relish. He loves it, the taste is fabulous beyond description, but Ed believes he’s going to suffer for eating that chili dog. He eats with gusto, all the while thinking how upset he is going to be in about thirty minutes. After polishing off the hot dog, the memory of the taste overrides his fear of indigestion and he has another. “Oh boy,” he thinks, “am I gonna pay for this. I’ll suffer later but it sure is good going down.”
He chews ecstatically, the blandness of the bun a perfect foil for the stinging chili with the chewy meat balancing the relationships. As his teeth meld the luscious tastes into a symphony within his mouth, the crunch of the relish with its biting tartness adds still another dimension to the snack. A smile lights Ed’s face as the last bite is swallowed, washed down by an IBC cream soda, his favorite soft drink. He sighs, belches softly, and waits for the discomfort to start. The ecstasy has gone, replaced by expectation. Ed now expects the delicious repast to war with his body. He believes that chili dogs are murderous for him. While our friend Edward goes about his business, a great many forces have come into play. The belief that the recently consumed food has been harmful created a stressful situation in his body.
The anxiety caused by the knowledge that the chili dog was going to harm him has tensed certain muscles, and the mind, also under duress, has triggered the production of chemicals designed to overcome what the mind believes, that the food now digesting in the stomach is harmful to the body. Digestive juices are quickly sent in to rid the stomach of its burden. Simple indigestion results this time.
As Ed, who very much enjoys chili dogs, continues to eat them over the years, other forces promulgated by the belief the food is harmful come onto the scene creating even more problems. If however, Ed were a multiple, his next personality, if it were to pop up in mid indigestion, would not have the problem at all – the chemical production would change in an instant — different beliefs — and the stomach with it’s contents physically belonging to both Ed and the next personality, would change it’s reaction to the hot dog — and think of the implications of that! Learn to control your beliefs and you not only free your mind of problems but your body as well. Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, ‘Assume a virtue if you have it not.’ or to put it another way, ‘Believe it to be, and it will be.’
THE TELEPATHIC NATURE OF CELLS
Clove Backster is a man who has made great contributions to the world of parapsychology with his experiments on plants and human skin cells. Mr. Backster has presented startling evidence to the world, the essence of which is that there is an apparent telepathic particle in the cells of plant and animal life. One of Mr. Backster’s early experiments involved a plant hooked up to a polygraph machine (lie detector). When he attempted to strike a match to burn a leaf of the plant during an experiment, there was a reaction that showed on the graph.
Apparently the plant was reading his mind. During later experiments Mr. Backster took skin scrapings from a
donor, placed them between two electrodes hooked to his polygraph, and got a reaction when he thought of doing harm to the gentleman from whose hand the skin had come. The cells of the skin of the donor were affected by those thoughts. The conclusion that Cleve Backster reached after many years of experimentation was this: There is a particle in the cells of people, animals, and plants that is telepathic. To put it in a different manner, there is reaction at the cellular level to thoughts. What type of reaction depends on other contributing factors. Say that at the cellular level there is a particle that is apparently telepathic, and reacts in some manner to negative thoughts. That being the case, the reverse would be true as well, the cells also react to positive thoughts—thoughts that are created by your mind and sifted through your various belief systems.
If, in fact, there is acceptance of information at the cellular level, just imagine what a negative or self-destructive thought can do to the normal demeanor of the body and its functions. That thought has an effect not only when self-conceived but also if developed by another person and directed at you. Let’s return to Edward Krueger. Before he thrust the chili dog into his mouth and tore off a heroic-sized mouthful, his thoughts were not on the taste but on the probability of indigestion from what he considered harmful food. His entire body was getting the message: “Hey, watch out, here comes poison!” Empathizing with Ed’s thoughts, you can almost feel
the stomach tensing, valves opening and closing, juices and chemicals created in defense being released in reaction to the intrusion of the evil forces created by Ed’s belief and expectation. Ed’s body is not reacting to bad food, only to the belief the food is bad.
Belief overrides logic, for the mind accepts only information that reinforces the belief. Information in conflict with the belief is rejected.
Constant reinforcement of a faulty belief strengthens it, day by day, month by month, year by year, until the belief becomes an integral part of the person’s experience. New beliefs are tested through the faulty belief, thereby compounding problems. The first step toward correcting false beliefs is the realization that belief systems exist, that they affect the reality of the individual, and that they can be changed. To effect a change in a belief system, you must achieve a greater awareness. There are those who believe themselves to be capable of limited achievement. Some believe themselves to be incapable of any achievement whatever, and, through the daily routines and rituals of life, they reinforce those beliefs daily and in some cases hourly.