There is a fun little story that helps to illustrate how beliefs influence our lives, and how that they work differently than mere behaviors or knowledge.... People who deal with abnormal psychology run into interesting beliefs all the time and are more familiar with their power over our lives than most of us are. Most of our beliefs are to a large degree shared with those around us so we don't tend to notice them or their influence over how we live. On with the story...

There was this one man who believed he was a corpse. He wouldn't eat, wouldn't work. He just sat around all the time claiming he was a corpse.

The psychologist tries to convince the man that he is not really dead. They argue about it back and forth to no avail. Finally the psychiatrist says "Do corpses bleed?"

The man thinks about this for a moment and says..."No..all body functions have stopped so there is no more bleeding possible"

So the psychiatrist says "OK, let's try an experiment then. I will take a needle and prick your finger and see if you bleed."

Since the patient has decided he is a corpse, there is nothing much he can do to stop it, so the psychiatrist sticks him with the needle, and the man starts to bleed. The patient looks at it totally amazed and says, "I'll be dammed. Corpses do bleed!"

-------------

With respect to the above story from classical psychology, a leading consultant in personal growth and corporate change wrote :

"The point is that when you have a belief, even environmental and behavioral evidence will not easily change it, because a belief is not about reality. People have beliefs in place of knowledge of reality. They are about things that people can't know for sure in reality. As a result people can take facts and fit them into belief systems in different ways."

-------------

For example, I personally know loving caring people who are convinced that they are worthless. If absolutely anything goes wrong...they are sure it is their fault, and they simply brush it off when people try to tell them otherwise. When someone compliments them, they just can't hear it.

We all have beliefs about ourselves ("I am a failure", "I am a people person").

We all have beliefs about others ("He is an egotistical idiot", "She is such a kind soul").

We all have beliefs about the world we live in ("You can't get a fair shake", "If you treat others with kindness it will be reciprocated").

We all have beliefs about what is beyond this world ("God is a kind and understanding being that wants to help us", "God is a vengeful being that wants to punish us for wrong doing", "There is no God", "God is part of all of us").

And so on. Having beliefs is not optional, they are a natural part of the way our minds work and make sense of the world and the massive amounts of sensory information that bombards us every second of the day. We live, think, and behave within the environment created by our belief structure, like a fish lives and behaves within water, with things outside that environment seeming foreign, threatening, or simply not-understandable to us.

We get our beliefs about ourselves and the world etc. throughout life, but especially when we are young. At some point in time we absorb from others around us, or decide in response to some situation...that "This is the way it is". And from then on we act as if that is true.... and interestingly, for us it does become true and becomes continually reinforced by life.

How does this work? Well, our minds love to make order and understanding out of chaos and confusion. So once we feel we have something figured out...a belief established, we "sort" further information and put large importance on anything that seems to support our pre-established belief, and discount anything as invalid that goes against our belief. We may simply not even physically take in evidence that is contrary to what we believe....we will actually refuse to hear/see contrary information... our brains will forbid our senses to move our conscious awareness to those things. This is an amazing phenomena that many will find hard to believe (:-)). But it is real, and similar phenomena has caused the court system many problems in cases where multiple eye-witnesses report contrary information, but all eye-witnesses honestly believe the version of events that formed in their own consciousness. Watch for this and you will see it in action all around you. (This is one of the key phenomena we use to reinforce beliefs...there are others)

This is why, for example if you argue with the loving kind person I mentioned above that they are not nothing, they will just think to themselves...."you are just trying to make me feel better, and you wouldn't be doing that if it wasn't true that I am nothing.... after all I KNOW I am nothing."

It is also why, both my wife and I could sit in many meetings year after year, and listen to things that now seem ridiculous in retrospect. Because we had the underlying belief that "the way" was right and good, we took in and expanded in our minds the things that supported that belief and our ability to co-exist with it. At the same time we discarded and discounted (made small and unimportant) evidence that did not support it, or happenings that would have made it hard to keep living as if it were true.

This same phenomena might help us understand how when a current 2x2 comes on the list, they often claim that the information about the beginnings of the way is no big deal. There minds are automatically making small and unimportant the things that conflict with what they already KNOW (believe) to be true...that being that "The way" is Gods one true way on earth.

Another interesting thing is that once we have a belief...we also believe that if other people could just see the same evidence as we do, they would all come to the same understanding and set of beliefs that we have. It surprises us when people see the same evidence and do not come to the same conclusions and beliefs. What we don't take into account is that beliefs work at a higher level...they exist first, and we fit knowledge and facts into them, not the other way around. So, the other person is busy fitting the "facts" into what they already KNOW to be true, and reinforcing their pre-existing beliefs, not actually coming to our beliefs at all!

We see examples of this occurring with different types of personal reactions to information on the beginnings of the 2x2's.

For example a person might have the underlying belief "that the 2x2 group is not doing positive things for me, it is the cause of much strife and hurt in my life". This person might react to information on the 2x2 history by being immediately grateful for information on the 2x2's when they come across it, even while professing...and a desire that someone had told them earlier.

On the other hand a belief that "the 2x2 group is doing something positive for me and I therefore want to trust it" might result in the information presented being discounted and considered unimportant in the scheme of things. A person with this set of beliefs congruently wants to believe in the 2x2 way and does believe. Contrary information will be fit into this underlying belief somehow without disturbing the underlying belief.

You know, it is even possible that many of the first workers actually did believe they were God's true way being reestablished. In fact, they likely did believe that or they would not have been able to act as congruently and powerfully to build the group that they did. Generally "fakes" are not very effective over the long haul. Its like trying to be a salesman selling a product that you know will not workand may in fact hurt people. In that situation, you are unlikely to be a very good salesman. However if you truly believe that the product you have is superior and a benefit to mankind...you will likely be fairly effective in spite of your lack of polished selling skills. And anyone who has read the newspaper articles in the Impartial Reporter about the beginnings of "the way" in Ireland would probably agree that the first workers were pretty unpolished! (Some of those hymns they sang...good grief!)

-------

There is one last thing I have come to understand about beliefs that I find extremely fascinating. Beliefs can seem to be somewhat self fulfilling. Using a sports example...

If we genuinely and honestly believe that we are bad at sports....how good at sports do you think we will ever get to be? If we are in this state...I can imagine our internal dialog now "Oh this is just too hard. I will never be able to do it well anyway, so why do I bother trying. Oh my, look at George..he is just a natural athlete while I was born a chair slug. Should I try to catch that ball? Probably not...I will just miss it anyway...."

What chance does the above person have of ever being very good at sports or even improving very much at it at all?

Contrast it with this internal dialog: "I bet if I went for it I could catch that ball! Wow..that George is fast...I wonder how he does that...I'm gonna watch him and see what he does so maybe I can copy his skills and add them to mine. Gee..this is fun...I never got this far before..neat! ...."

What about this person? No wonder sports teams and Olympic athletes are busy training their minds along with their bodies these days!!!

I think the same just might apply to many aspects of our lives, including our interactions with people both in and out of the 2x2 way. Giving someone a warm smile doesn't guarantee that you will get a smile back....but it sure does seem to increase the chances of it.

It seems that we are just now starting to understand as a human race that we do create a lot of our experience through how we interpret what happens to us as much as what actually happens. What that understanding gives us is the wonderful gift of choice. When we don't have choice we are slaves to a single option. When I was young in the 2x2's I "made my choice to walk in his way" but really...it wasn't a choice at all...as I knew no other ways to live my life. I think that may be partly why I now appreciate choice so much... never again do I want to be a slave to only one possibility of life and belief.

As another example, some express that they do not believe that there is a hell of everlasting torment. If I look at this as simply an observer (rather than a person who 'knows" what is right) this does indeed seem to be a choice the person is making, because obviously many in the world do believe in this sort of hell. So, assuming for a moment that it is a choice, which belief about hell is more empowering and positive for me, and with which will I be of greater help to others in this world? What if I looked at all my beliefs in this way? Might be interesting!

Jim Arnold

September 26, 1999