THE POWER OF BELIEFS
By Shawn Malzahn
Beliefs are very powerful. Beliefs can be seen as a way of thinking that we have when something happens to us. So for example, “This” happened to me, and therefore I believe something about it, or I already have a belief about “This”, and since this happened, I feel like “this”, but you see here, and the point I’m trying to make is, that beliefs lead to feelings, and how we feel inside is very important, because feelings lead to actions, and actions lead to consequences, so in a way, we can say that our beliefs, and various belief systems, have a profound, and very powerful effect on our lives, as well as the way that we experience our lives in general, so hopefully by the end of this lesson we should definitely understand how important and how powerful beliefs can be for us based on some of the examples that I will give. One of which has to do with faith and spirituality, and the other has to do with normal beliefs, and what has been proven by scientific methods.
The simplest and most efficient example that will hopefully illustrate the power of beliefs, and how those beliefs have the ability to influence the effects, or consequences of our physical body, is what is called, the Placebo Effect, or essentially, the improvement in the condition of a sick person that occurs in response to some kind of treatment, BUT CANNOT be considered due to the specific treatment itself. Rather, it is due to the BELIEF, ATTENTION, and STRONG EMOTIONAL EXPECTATION that the treatment WILL WORK, held solely in the MIND of the sick person. This alone is the cause of cure in the body, not the actual medication itself, or whatever it was that was given to serve as the placebo. So essentially, a placebo medication works only because you BELIEVE it will work, and not because it actually does something to your body chemically to produce a desired effect, or state of wellbeing, so as you can see, this scientifically proven phenomenon called, “Placebo Effect” has some really profound implications as to what we as human beings are capable of manifesting solely through the thinking/believing faculties of our minds. For it has often been said, “mind over matter”, and this is the same principle, or maxim, that is behind the scenes operating in most faith healings and curses, where people seem to be mysteriously healed or harmed by some type of saintly or demonic force or being, the results of which are solely dependent upon the persons belief (or what we might call faith in this case because we are talking about angles and demons which is something essentially spiritual), and their attention (or focus of consciousness), and their emotional expectation to be healed and/or cursed that is the cause for what happens to them.
There are numerous documented cases in the field of psychology that reveal how a man and/or woman’s thoughts, beliefs, and various belief systems actually and most certainly profoundly alter their physical, mental, emotional and behavioral states of being. I would now like to share with you one of those documented cases. The following is an account given by Frank Moore in the publication called, “A Journalist’s Notebook”:
A young civil servant from India visited a doctor after feeling exhausted from prolonged exposure to excessive heat. The doctor looked him over and promptly checked his heart and lungs thoroughly. After the examination was completed, the doctor told the man that he would write him a letter the following day with his conclusion. The next morning, the patient received his letter from the doctor stating, “Your left lung is gone. Your heart is seriously diseased. Get your affairs in order, for I am afraid that you may only have a few weeks left to live.” After reading such horrible news, within 24 hours the man fell into a deep depression, and began to experience breathing trouble along with severe chest pains. Overnight the man became so bad that his personal servant had no choice but to resend for the doctor. Upon arrival, the doctor was shocked to see his patient looking so terrible. After asking what was troubling the man, the angry patient replied, “You already know it’s my heart! And I can’t breathe! I’m dying doctor, I’m dying!” Looking confused, the doctor quickly examined his patient once more only to say the following, “I don’t understand. You appear to be completely fine.” This only served to enrage the distraught patient who replied back, “But the letter you sent me! It said my left lung was missing, and that my heart was diseased! You said that I would not make it much longer and that I should get my affairs in order!” Upon hearing this, the doctor appeared to have a look of terror upon his face. The doctor realized that he had made a very serious mistake. The doctor quickly apologized to his patient stating that his secretary must have accidentally sent him the wrong letter by mistake, and that his letter was supposed to read, “You are only experiencing the effects of mild heat exhaustion brought about from strenuous labor at work.” And that he should be quite fine after taking a brief vacation exploring the countryside. Almost immediately after hearing these words, the patient’s symptoms subsided, and completely vanished a short while afterward. As for the other patient who really was sick, once he got his letter handed to him, he decided to take that recommended vacation on the countryside, and was found to be alive and well five years later!
This is only one of the countless cases where we find a man and/or woman’s mind being the sole source and power of one’s own physical destruction or restoration based upon the beliefs that he or she holds dearly to heart (which is another way of saying, having a belief backed, or coupled with a strong emotional feeling). Thus if belief, attention and emotionally charged expectations can do all this to your physical body, then just imagine what these faculties can do to your emotions and subsequent behaviors (since we know that emotions, or energy in motion, is the fuel or force that physical action feeds upon). If you are interested in examining further evidence as to how imagination, belief and faith affect the body, emotions and behaviors, I recommend researching the effects of hypnosis and suggestive therapeutics for more information and case study examples.
Another phenomenon that illustrates the tremendous power that beliefs can have over the physical body is something called “pointing the bone”, or the bone pointing ceremony done by North, South, but mainly Central Australian Aboriginals, in which the Kurdaitcha, or powerful aboriginal elder, is brought in within the tribe to punish a guilty party by death (so this can be seen as a kind of spiritual tribal punishment). The Kurdaitcha is essentially acting as an executioner, because it is thought by these people that if the Kurdaitcha casted a bone called the kundela, and pointed it toward you, it was believed without a shadow of a doubt that you were cursed, and that death would surely soon follow. There is a related story about the role of the Kurdaitcha by anthropologists John Godwin and Ronald Rose:
In 1953, a dying Aborigine named Kinjika was flown from Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory to a hospital in Darwin. Tests revealed he had not been poisoned, he had not been injured, nor was he suffering from any kind of disease. Yet, the man was most definitely dying. After four days of agony spent in the hospital, Kinjika died on the fifth. It was said that he died from bone pointing. “Bone pointing” is a method of execution used by the Aborigines. It is said to leave no trace, and never fails to kill its victim. The bone used in this curse is made of human, kangaroo, emu or even wood. The shape of the killing-bone, or kundela, varies from tribe to tribe. The lengths can be from six to nine inches long. They look like a long needle. At the rounded end, a piece of hair is attached through the hole, and glued into place with a gummy resin. Before it can be used, the kundela is charged with a powerful psychic energy in a ritual that is kept secret from women and those who are not of tribal membership. To be effective, the ritual must be performed faultlessly. The bone is then given to the Kurdaitcha, who are the tribe’s ritual killers, or spiritual executioners. These killers then go and hunt (if the person has fled) the condemned. The name, Kurdaitcha, comes from the slippers they wear while on the hunt. The slippers are made of cockatoo (or emu) feathers and human hair – they virtually leave no footprints. Also, they wear kangaroo hair, which is stuck to their bodies after they coat themselves in human blood, and they also don masks of emu feathers. They hunt in pairs or in threes and will pursue their quarry for years, if necessary, never giving up until the person has been cursed. Once the man is caught, one of the Kurdaitcha goes down onto one knee and points the kundela. The victim is said to be frozen with fear and stays to hear the curse, a brief piercing chant, that the Kurdaitcha chants. Then, he and his fellow hunters return to the village and the kundela is ritually burned. The condemned man may live for several days or even weeks, yet in almost all cases, he believes so strongly in the curse that has been uttered, death soon arrives. It is said that the ritual loading of the kundela creates a “spear of thought” which pierces the victim when the bone is pointed at him. It is as if an actual spear has been thrust at him and his death is certain. Kinjika had been accused of an incestuous relationship, and instead of going to his trial, he fled the village. The hunters eventually found him and then cursed him. It is said that this is the reason why he died.
Before we conclude this talk, I would like for you to now begin the process of self-reflection. Since we now know how deeply and profoundly powerful our beliefs and various belief systems can be (when it comes to effecting our overall wellbeing on a very physical and cellular level) let us now contemplate how our current beliefs and various belief systems are effecting us right here, right now, in this very present moment. What do your beliefs do for you right now? Or rather, what are they DOING TO YOU right now? What are the beliefs that you have about yourself, other people and the world at large doing to your mental, emotional, physical, behavioral and even spiritual states of being? How are your actions of speech and body influenced? Take some time to reflect on this question.
