You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter
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| Changing Your Beliefs So then ask yourself What beliefs and perceptions about you and your life have you been unconsciously agreeing to that you’d have to change in order to create this new state of being This is a question that requires some thought, because as I said, with many of these beliefs, we aren’t even aware that we believe them. Often, we accept certain cues from our environment that then prime us to accept certain beliefs, which mayor may not be true. Either way, the moment we accept the belief, it has an effect not only on our performance, but also on the choices we make. Remember the study from Chapter 2 about the women taking the math test who first read fake research reports about men being better than women in math Those who’d read that the advantage was due to genetics scored lower than those who’d read that the advantage was due to stereotyping. Although both reports were false—men are no better at math than women—the women in the group who’d read that they had a genetic disadvantage believed what they’d read and then scored lower. It was the same with the white men who were told that Asians score slightly better than whites on a test they were about to take. In both cases, when the students were primed to unconsciously believe they wouldn’t score as well, they in fact didn’t—even though what they were told was totally false. 165 With this in mind, take a look at this list of some common limiting beliefs and see which ones you maybe harboring without being fully aware that you’re doing so: I’m not good at math. I’m shy. I’m short-tempered. I’m not smart or creative. I’m a lot like my parents. Men shouldn’t cry or be vulnerable. I can’t find a partner. Women are lesser than men. My race or culture is superior. Life is serious. Life is difficult, and no one cares. I’m never going to be a success. I have to work hard to make it in life. Nothing good ever happens tome. I’m not a lucky person. Things never go my way. I never have enough time. It’s someone else’s responsibility to make me happy. When I own this particular thing, then I’ll be happy. It’s hard to change reality. Reality is a linear process. Germs make me sick. I gain weight easily. I need eight hours of sleep. My pain is normal, and it’ll never go away. My biological clock is ticking. Beauty looks like this. Having fun is frivolous. God is outside of me. I’m a bad person, so God doesn’t love me. . . . I could goon forever, but you get the idea. Since beliefs and perceptions are based on past experiences, then any of these beliefs that you happen to hold about yourself came from your past. So are they true, or did you just make them up Even if they were true at some point in time, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re true now. We don’t look at it that way, of course, because we’re addicted to our beliefs we’re addicted to the emotions of our past. We see our beliefs as truths, not ideas that we can change. If we have very strong beliefs about something, evidence to the contrary could be sitting right in front of us, but we may not see it because what we perceive is entirely different. We’ve in fact conditioned ourselves to believe all sorts of things that aren’t necessarily true—and many of these things are having a negative impact on our health and happiness. Certain cultural beliefs area good example. Remember the story about the voodoo curse from Chapter 1 ? The patient was convinced he was going to die, because the voodoo priest had put a hex on him. The hex only worked because he (and others in his culture) believed voodoo to be true —it wasn’t the voodoo that had hexed him it was the belief in the voodoo. Other cultural beliefs can cause premature deaths. For instance, Chinese Americans who have a disease, combined with a birth year that Chinese astrology and Chinese medicine consider to be ill fated, die up to five years early, according to researchers at the University of California at San Diego who studied the death records of almost 30,000 Chinese 166 Americans Thee ect was stronger in those who were more attached to Chinese traditions and beliefs, and the results also held consistent for nearly all major causes of death studied. For example, Chinese Americans born in years associated with susceptibility to diseases involving lumps and tumors died of lymphatic cancer four years younger than Chinese Americans born in other years or than non—Chinese Americans with similar cancers. As these examples demonstrate, we’re suggestible only to what we consciously or unconsciously believe to be true. An Eskimo who doesn’t believe in Chinese astrology is no more suggestible to the idea that he’s vulnerable to a certain disease because he was born in the year of the tiger or the year of the dragon than an Episcopalian would be suggestible to the idea that a hex from a voodoo priest could kill him or her. But once any of us accepts, believes, and surrenders to an outcome without consciously thinking about it or analyzing it, then we’ll become suggestible to that particular reality. Inmost people, such a belief is planted well beyond the conscious mind into the subconscious system, which is what creates the disease. So now let me ask you another question How many personal beliefs based on cultural experiences do you have that may not be true? Changing beliefs maybe difficult, but it’s not impossible. Just think what would happen if you were able to successfully challenge your unconscious beliefs. Instead of thinking and feeling, I never have enough Download 5.46 Mb. 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