My earlier post, “The Nature of Reality and Your Personal Success” can perhaps best be summarized in the words of 
the physicist Professor Amit Goswami in stating
“Matter, energy and consciousness are the same thing.”
Professor Goswami goes on further to say:
“Everything, including matter, exists in and is manipulated from consciousness. This does not mean that matter is unreal but that the reality of matter is secondary to that of consciousness, which itself is the ground of all being, including matter.”
To help further understand consciousness as the ground of all being, which includes what is thought of as personal consciousness, consider the following analogy.
Imagine consciousness, which is the ground of all being, as an ocean.
An ocean is made up of molecules of water, each of which has its own individuality but at the same time is an part of body of water.
In the same way, personal consciousness has its own individuality but at the same time is an part of the ocean of consciousness.
To help define personal consciousness, a little further, consider the dream state.
When you are in the state of consciousness, called dreaming, you still keep your sense of identity.
In other words you still feel like you.
You even have a sense of body image, which you find as being you.
Therefore, you interact with anything that you do not consider as you, as if it is separate from and independent of you.
In the dream state of consciousness you make this differentiation between you, and not you, even though this cannot be the case because all images in your dream are part of your personal state of consciousness and must be part of you.
Understanding this last point is extremely important because you also from all images in your waking state of consciousness using the same beliefs about what is you, and not you.
This is, perhaps, a difficult concept to completely grasp at this stage, but it will become clearer as you progress through this information.
Ponder for a moment what was explored in an earlier post about the dream state of consciousness.
It was clearly shown that thought, is energy, and is extremely powerful and creative.
While in your dream state of consciousness you create a whole reality of seemingly separate objects and people and then interact with them.
The reality you create is so convincing that whilst you are focused in it you are unaware that it is being created by you.
It is so convincing that you can even create and experience emotions such as fear, anger or happiness.
To develop this concept of the creative power of thought requires a consideration of the term a belief.
The dictionary defines a belief as something you accept to be true.
However, just because you accept something to be true, it does not mean that it is actually true.
In other words, in the light of further information, you may need to revise your beliefs.
Here are some examples of beliefs that you may have changed in the light of further information:
Most people, as children, used to believe in Santa Claus, but stopped believing in him when they were told that he did not really exist.
Again, many people were taught, and probably still hold the belief today, that Christopher Columbus discovered America.
But, actually, what he discovered was the West Indies.
He was trying to find a western passage to India, which is what he thought he had found, and that is why those islands are called the West Indies even to this day.
The person who was credited by the cartographer Martin Waldseemuller with the discovery of America is Amerigo Vespucci.
Some sources suggest that it is from his name that the name America is derived.
In the light of this information some people may have just changed a belief that they have held for years.
Some beliefs, like the last one perhaps, are easier to change than others.
However, some beliefs about life are so ingrained that people think they are facts about life, and not just beliefs about life and this can inhibit their personal development.
This is a very important point to bear in mind.
It is very useful to make a list of your beliefs.
Regularly reviewing your list will show you how your beliefs are changing and which items on your list are facts and which ones are just beliefs. This process WILL help in your personal development.
If you are having a little trouble starting your list, then consider if you hold the following belief.
You may believe that:
- As you get older it is inevitable that you become frailer and weaker.
Remember that a belief is something you accept to be true, but information gained later may show it not to be true after all.
Here is another question about beliefs you may hold.
Would you agree that:
- People generally feel they are victims of circumstance; that life ‘happens’ to them, mostly outside of their control?
But, what if being a victim is based only on a set of beliefs?
You may find this quite a challenging statement.
However, remember what has been stated about a belief being something you accept to be true, but may not be.
You may believe that you live in a world of facts.
Therefore, it may be difficult to accept that your knowledge is largely a collection of beliefs about life and not a collection of facts about life.
Feeling that they are facts about life is what causes the most problems.
Once you realize you are dealing with beliefs, rather than unchangeable facts, then your intellect can accept that it is possible to change them, and personal development is all about change.
If you wish to change a particular circumstance in your life you first have to be very sure whether you are dealing with a fact about life, or just believe it is a fact about life.
Once you are sure of this, you also need to understand that there is a difference between a want and an expectation.
A want is best described as something you hope will happen, but have no certainty that it will.
An expectation, however, is having complete certainty that what you want to happen will happen.
Desire can be transformed into definite expectation, but desire on its own is not enough to bring about the required change in your personal experiences.
It is easy to confuse a desire, with an expectation, and therefore become disappointed when you do not seem to get the outcome you want.
The procedure for changing beliefs, and therefore your experiences, has to start from a fundamental understanding of the difference between a fact and a belief; and between a desire and a definite expectation.
The methods for changing beliefs may be different for each person and can vary from using such techniques as visualization to writing lists.
It is best to use whatever technique feels right for you and to remember that only a full expectation of the required change will make it happen.
With this understanding you can start to accept new beneficial beliefs in place of old limiting beliefs.
You can then conduct your daily life in the secure knowledge that your experiences will fall in line with your new beliefs about what is possible.
Consider again the belief in being a victim.
Feeling like a victim of some sort can take many forms and is usually built on a collection of personal beliefs, but there are a couple of fundamental beliefs that will always be present.
They are the beliefs that it is possible to be a victim in the first place, and that there is a world that is solid, separate and external to you and therefore outside of your control.
As you become more confident in the knowledge that you only experience what you believe is possible, then you will experience fewer instances where you cast yourself in the role of victim.
You should be gentle with yourself as you build your confidence in consciously instigating the experiences you want.
You may wish to start by changing what you consider to be some small aspect of your personal experiences.
As you see the required changes come about, it will give you the confidence to tackle what you consider to be more difficult challenges.
When goal setting, it is important not to limit yourself by insisting on too much detail as to how and when you will create that experience for yourself.
To help with this, it is advisable to focus on the personal goals and not the obstacles, and keep in mind the difference between a desire and an expectation.
A core belief of expect the best, will ensure that whatever happens, it will be the best, even if intellect cannot see a logical way forward.
To further understand the power of belief, consider the use of placebo pills and placebo surgery by the medical profession.
A placebo pill is just a sugar pill with no real medication properties.
It is administered to the patient as if it is a specific drug with precise medical value which is expected by the patient to have the desired effect.
The patient believes in the doctor and believes in the treatment.
The effectiveness of these sugar pills is quite remarkable.
They have been used to treat all kinds of illness, including cancer.
Even more astounding is the result of a major trial here in the US on the placebo effect of surgery for arthritis of the knee.
A team of surgeons in Texas tested the procedure by performing the surgery on 180 patients with osteoarthritis in the knee.
Two-thirds had two different types of the surgery.
But for the remaining third of the patients, the surgeons went through the motions by giving a tranquilizer, making three incisions and pretending to do the surgery.
All participants in the study had to sign their chart to show that they understood they might receive the placebo surgery, which would not help their arthritic knee.
Most arthroscopic surgery on the knee is done to repair injured ligaments and cartilage, which doctors say is useful.
The experiment was designed to see whether the surgery helped reduce pain and increase mobility in patients with an arthritic knee.
The researchers found patients who underwent the placebo surgery were just as likely to report pain relief as those who received the real procedure.
It seems that for osteoarthritis patients, the relief is all in their heads.
Dr. Bruce Moseley, an orthopedics professor at Baylor College in Houston and one of the study’s co-authors, said
“I don’t believe that arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee is any more beneficial than a placebo effect, and I don’t recommend it.”
Further evidence was shown on a television program in the UK made for the BBC’s Open University.
The researchers found that the effectiveness of all medicine, orthodox and alternative, is certainly partly due to the ‘placebo effect’, meaning that if you believe something will do you good then it most probably will.
The program continued by saying that the placebo effect could demonstrate the power of a person’s mind and body to heal itself, thus further illustrating how the importance of expecting a positive outcome plays an important role in the effectiveness of both alternative and orthodox medicine.
To expand the placebo effect to the area of diets, consider the statement that if diets really worked, there would only need to be one diet and it would work for everyone.
As stated by Prof. Fletcher, Dr. Pine and Dr. Penman
“Diets are so ineffective in controlling weight that around 95% of people who go on one end up just as fat a year later (and sometimes fatter too).”
In a 20 year study of behavioral flexibility in British Universities and for the UK’s Medical Research Council, Professor Ben Fletcher, Dr Karen Pine and Dr Danny Penman discovered that the more flexible your behavior, the more weight you will lose.
What is really amazing about this study is that weight loss or gain had nothing to do with food consumption.
This is a powerful example demonstrating that ‘what goes on in your mind determines your physical experiences‘.
As further examples of how your health is affected by ‘what you think’, consider the following medical research findings.
Steven Greer and his colleagues of Kings College Hospital medical school in London conducted a study on breast cancer.
They found that patients with ‘fighting spirit’ or ‘denial’ were more likely to be alive and relapse-free five years after diagnosis than patients who resigned themselves to the disease.
Further to this, in a study by Brenda Penninx and her colleagues on the relationship between depression and cancer, it was found that chronically depressed non-smokers were more likely to develop cancer than smokers.
In addition, a great deal of study has been carried out on how ‘natural killer cells’ in the body’s immune system are affected by stressful periods in a person’s life.
It was clearly demonstrated that the effectiveness of the ‘natural killer cells’ was reduced during periods of high stress.
These findings are supported by an experiment conducted on a group of dental students.
Small holes were made in the roof of the mouths of a group of students, once during a holiday period and once just before their exams.
The wounds took on average 40% longer to heal around exam time than they did in the more relaxed holiday period.
Not only do your beliefs affect your health, they also affect how long you live.
Daniel E Moerman, PhD and Wayne B Jonas MD were able to show that non-white Chinese Americans die much earlier than would normally be expected if, according to Chinese traditions, it was indicated that they had an ill fated combination of birth date and disease.
They demonstrated that the more a person believed in the traditional Chinese culture, the more pronounced the effect.
The differences in life span, up to 6% or 7%, were not due to having Chinese genes but to having Chinese beliefs.
This powerful example shows the dire consequences of erroneous and often hidden thought patterns.
The placebo effect shows that there is more to human health and wellbeing than is currently explained by either orthodox or alternative medicine.
The conclusion that can be drawn from these examples is that the patients, powerful beliefs were the only factor at play in bringing about very real medical changes.
There are many such examples in medical journals from around the World.
The power of belief is so well-recognized by the medical profession that the prescription of placebos continues on a daily basis by many doctors.
The use of placebos is a very practical example of the power of your beliefs.
Understanding the power of your beliefs is crucial to understanding how you instigate your personal experiences.
Your everyday reality is a state of consciousness in which all your experiences are based on your beliefs about what is possible and what is not possible.
This concept will continue to become clearer throughout future posts and provide you with the ability to gain more creative control over every aspect of your life and assist in your personal development.
I’d like finish with some reflective questions:
- How do you think a though is transmitted between people during telepathy and why does distance seem to have no effect on it?
- How does the creative power of thought work?
- How would you define what a belief is?
- How would you define the difference between a belief and a fact?
- How do placebo pills and placebo surgery work?
OK…your thoughts? Please share in the comments below.
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