| March 2008 |
In this month's newsletter we have an article about beliefs and how they effect your sense of reality. We will specifically talk about how your beliefs effect your healing from medical conditions. At the end we have our Hypnosis In The News segment with a couple of links to videos.
Beliefs
Information from the outside world comes into your brain through the five senses. Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, taste, and smell. This information immediately enters a filtering system. This filtering system consists, in part, of your language, beliefs, attitudes, memories, and values. Your beliefs play a major role in what information gets filtered into your brain and your awareness. Please note that the following processes operate on an unconscious level. Although, with practice, one can learn to be consciously aware of them.
Filter System
In this article we focus on how your beliefs operate in your filter system. The filter system:
- Deletes data coming in
- Distorts data coming in
- Generalizes data coming in
Deletion
The belief in unlike-ability will cause the person to fail at noticing when people do like him and want to interact with him. Visually speaking, he will fail to notice when people smile at him. He will fail to notice when people express nonverbally that they want to interact with him.
Distortion
Suppose someone frowns at our person with the belief that no one likes him. He may distort this to mean that he is not liked, when in reality the person was frowning because he was in pain due to a pebble in his shoe.
Generalization
If a person does something to slight the person in our example, he will immediately notice this and generalize from this one event that everyone does not like him.
Internal Representations
After the data from the world gets through the filter system, it is used by the mind to create internal representations. Quite literally, these are re-presentations to the mind of what reality is. These re-presentations to the mind consists of internal visual images, internal sounds, and internal feelings. Our example person who believes he is unlikeable will create in his mind visual images and sounds and feelings that represent what he believes the world to be. He will hold in his mind visual images of all people disliking him with the attendant bad feelings.
Everyone has a filtering system with the subsequent internal representations and they account for the fact that 10 people can view the same event, such as an accident, for example, and all 10 will give a different version of what happened! This is because each person does not report what they saw, although they think they do. Rather they report on their internal representations of the event. That is to say, they report on what they think they saw.
External Behavior
Now, the very interesting thing is that a person's internal representations largely effect a person's behavior in the world. Thus, a person who believes that no one likes him, will form pictures and images in his mind of people not liking him, and this will in turn, effect his behavior to such an extent that he will act in a way that makes it difficult for people to like him. In other words, the belief becomes a self-fulling prophecy.
Beliefs Are Neither True or False
According to the above example, beliefs tend to create a reality that conforms to the belief. The only rational conclusion that you can come to is that it makes no sense to talk about whether or not beliefs about reality are true or false. A person who strongly holds a belief will end of creating a reality that conforms to the belief; therefore all strongly held beliefs are true. If you believe life is difficult, then yes that is what you will get. If you believe life is wonderful, that that is what you will get.
Therefore, it only makes sense to discuss whether beliefs are useful or not. Do you have beliefs in your mind that are useful to you? Do you have beliefs that serve to make you happy and productive, or not?
Positive Resourceful Beliefs
According to the above logic, it is more resourceful to adopt a belief, for example, that everyone likes you. This belief will influence your behavior in such a way that you will behave as if everyone does like you and this will in turn tend to make people act that way to you. You will create a filter system that deletes those occasions when people don't like you, you will distort events into making it seem as though people like you, and you will generalize most situations to "prove" that people like you. And the grand result will be that you have a reality where everyone likes you; a much better world to be in!
Humorous Story
A patient in a mental ward of the hospital believed he was dead. He just laid on the bed all day long and did nothing because dead people don't do anything. The psychiatrist comes in and asks the patient if dead people bleed. The patient says, of course not, dead people don't bleed because they are dead. The psychiatrist, in an attempt to convince the patient otherwise, pulls out a pin and pricks the finger of the patient and it starts to bleed. The patient looks at it for a bit and finally says, "Gosh darn. Dead people do bleed." Such is the power of belief!
Beliefs in Medical Situations
We now discuss how beliefs shape the outcome of healing in medical situations. First of all, most people have strongly held unconscious beliefs that medical doctors know everything and are superior and their directions should always be followed without question. These beliefs can have either positive or negative consequences. Suppose a person has been diagnosed with a serious illness, say cancer.
Right away, any previously held beliefs about cancer that the cancer patient may have begin to kick in. If the cancer patient believes that cancer can not be cured, or that having cancer will be painful and involve a lot of suffering, then he will tend to create that kind of reality for himself. On the other hand, if the cancer patient believes that cancer is curable, that it can be managed with minimal pain and suffering, then he will tend to create that kind of reality for himself.
The doctor's pronouncements are specially important at this time. Because most people believe that what the doctor says is true, what the doctor says about the course of treatment can have a huge effect. If the doctor says there will be pain and suffering, then most likely that is what will happen.
Placebos do work precisely because of what has been outlined above about beliefs. In the same way, nocebos also work. Nocebos are negative placebos. An example of a nocebo is when the doctor says there will be pain and suffering and death will occur in 6 months. If the patient believes that, then there is more likelihood that that is what will happen.
It is important that the doctor always talk about hope and recovery and healing. Most young doctors know about the power of words and beliefs and know how to speak to their patients. Older doctors have not learned about the power of words and you as a patient must be careful to not start believing just anything the doctor may tell you!
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a marvelous tool to use to work with changing unhelpful and unresourceful beliefs. It can be used to create and install positive beliefs for health and healing. Cancer patients, for example, have been hypnotized to believe that chemotherapy treatment will be pain free and that their hair will stay in and that is exactly what subsequently happened! Surgery patients have been hypnotized to believe that their operations will be smooth will little bleeding and little use for drugs and that they will recover quickly and easily. And that is what has happened! Almost all medical conditions can be positively effected by using hypnosis to change beliefs about what is possible.
Postlog
The system presented here about how to think about beliefs is just that, a belief system. It is neither true or false. It is useful and resourceful and if you choose to believe in it, it can have a powerful and positive effect on your life.
Hypnosis In The News
During the last week of February, ABC News program "Good Morning America" has been spotlighting hypnosis. Diane Sawyer used hypnosis to walk on fire and Chris Cuomo used hypnosis to get over his fear of heights. Click here to see a video clip from the program.
Christina Salvo, a reporter for Fox 21 News in Colorado Springs did a report on the use of hypnosis to get over her phobia of snakes. Click here to read her report of her experience. There is also a video on the right hand side of the page about mid-way down the page.
We hope you have found this E-Zine to be informative and of value. If there is anyway we can help you achieve faster healing, please call us at 888-658-6899.
Sincerely,
Greg Turner, CCHt.
Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist
Pain Management & Accelerated Healing
Center For Faster Healing With Hypnosis
Ask About Medical Hypnosis
Call Toll Free: 888-658-6899