The power of belief

Leela Menon of Kerala was diagnosed with advanced cancer by the doctors of the Medical college hospital, Kottayam in 1984 and she was told she had 6 months to live. But she did not believe it. She intensely desired to overcome cancer and live long doing what she loved best. As she was put to chemotherapy and lay down frail and thin will all hair gone, she was picturing her life with her husband, writing the books she planned and doing social work which she loved. In a couple of months she was totally cured and discharged! Today she is still alive doing everything she had dreamt of. Leela Menon of Kerala was diagnosed with advanced cancer by the doctors of the Medical college hospital, Kottayam in 1984 and she was told she had 6 months to live. But she did not believe it. She intensely desired to overcome cancer and live long doing what she loved best. As she was put to chemotherapy and lay down frail and thin will all hair gone, she was picturing her life with her husband, writing the books she planned and doing social work which she loved. In a couple of months she was totally cured and discharged! Today she is still alive doing everything she had dreamt of.

In his book, ‘the power of the subconscious mind’, Joseph Murphy describes a guy who consulted a number of doctors as he imagined he had a heart problem. But they all said he was alright. Not convinced, he went to a very famous astrologer who, after detailed consultations with his charts, pronounced that he would die on the next full moon day. He was asked to partition his land and wealth and give to his children and inform all his relatives about his death. As the day approached he withdrew into his prayer room and prayed to make his death painless. On the prophesized day he refused to eat anything or meet anyone. As dusk fell and the moon began to rise up he suffered a massive heart attack and died.

An ordinary sugar pill, if administered by a doctor in whom the patient has great faith, will cure the patient of his sickness just like the real drug. It is one’s belief which brings about the effects. If you feel and say very often you are old you will become one with all the symptoms of old age. If you think and say often you will not be there for the next Christmas, you may die before. If you believe you will not succeed you are not going to. If you start believing you cannot remember anything, you are commanding your brain to shut off your memory function. When you believe in something the chances that you attain your objective is certain. Beliefs give a direct command to your brain and nervous system and hence they are the most powerful force for getting anything. They energize us and act as commanders directing us towards our goals.

If from our very young days we have been experiencing failure, poverty, despair, it is hard to come to believe that we will triumph in what we attempt. Childhood and later environment have certainly played a part in shaping our beliefs. Careful parental guidance, attention and support will help bloom our talents and develop them to higher altitudes. Otherwise we will have to put in ten-fold or more efforts to succeed.  

How do we create belief? Perhaps we need to feel a dire need and a burning desire. Keep our thoughts on our aims -whatever they are--for more than half the time we are awake.  Create the experience desired in the future here and now. Feel our goal is already achieved and live in it. If we intensely desire something we will be in an empowered, excited and resourceful state. Do you believe you will get what you desire? What are your beliefs? Can you write them down now to know what you will achieve?        

In his book, ‘the power of the subconscious mind’, Joseph Murphy describes a guy who consulted a number of doctors as he imagined he had a heart problem. But they all said he was alright. Not convinced, he went to a very famous astrologer who, after detailed consultations with his charts, pronounced that he would die on the next full moon day. He was asked to partition his land and wealth and give to his children and inform all his relatives about his death. As the day approached he withdrew into his prayer room and prayed to make his death painless. On the prophesized day he refused to eat anything or meet anyone. As dusk fell and the moon began to rise up he suffered a massive heart attack and died.

An ordinary sugar pill, if administered by a doctor in whom the patient has great faith, will cure the patient of his sickness just like the real drug. It is one’s belief which brings about the effects. If you feel and say very often you are old you will become one with all the symptoms of old age. If you think and say often you will not be there for the next Christmas, you may die before. If you believe you will not succeed you are not going to. If you start believing you cannot remember anything, you are commanding your brain to shut off your memory function. When you believe in something the chances that you attain your objective is certain. Beliefs give a direct command to your brain and nervous system and hence they are the most powerful force for getting anything. They energize us and act as commanders directing us towards our goals.

If from our very young days we have been experiencing failure, poverty, despair, it is hard to come to believe that we will triumph in what we attempt. Childhood and later environment have certainly played a part in shaping our beliefs. Careful parental guidance, attention and support will help bloom our talents and develop them to higher altitudes. Otherwise we will have to put in ten-fold or more efforts to succeed.  

How do we create belief? Perhaps we need to feel a dire need and a burning desire. Keep our thoughts on our aims -whatever they are--for more than half the time we are awake.  Create the experience desired in the future here and now. Feel our goal is already achieved and live in it. If we intensely desire something we will be in an empowered, excited and resourceful state. Do you believe you will get what you desire? What are your beliefs? Can you write them down now to know what you will achieve or where you will be?        

The Bible of success

 We often think that an enormously successful person has a special gift.  It is nothing like that. He/she took massive action in a particular way which we can do too. People who have excelled have followed a streamlined, consistent path towards success.

These are perhaps the steps in that process:

Know precisely what you want. Without a target you cannot hit it. A vague idea will not help. Define what you want in the clearest terms. Then you cultivate a passion to get it.  The successful ones are always driven by an obsessive purpose that drives them forward.

Fix a time limit for getting it. This will help you focus your mental energies towards the goal.  

Decide on what you will give in return for getting it. There is no principle called something for nothing.

Develop a strategy, a plan to get where you want to. Streamline your energies so that you are aligned mentally and physically towards the goal.  

Connect with people at all levels. Build friendships, form lasting bonds with others and this will come handy as you move forward. All successful people have the extraordinary ability to connect with others.

Start believing you will get what you want. Belief makes all the difference. People who succeed believe they will and those who fail either doubt or believe they will not succeed.  Remember if you believe you can and if you believe you cannot you are right either way. ‘Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determines what we will be.’ Antony Robbins.  

Start taking massive and congruent action. Monitor the result of what you do and change the course of action in the aligned paths until you are getting what you want. Passion and belief propels one to success.  A set of values, a moral compass, should guide you in every action you take.

 Communicate positively to yourselves. Negative self talk will ruin everything.  How we take our experiences is crucial and use them to leverage ourselves. What will we do when everything we attempt turn out wrong? People who succeed have perhaps more problems than we do. It is not what happens to us that determine success but how we perceive them and what we do to make a difference. Keep refusing to accept but the best and you will very often get it. 

Mind cures or make us sick

Hospital records all over the world show that those who visit hospitals (as out- patients) continue to do so on a regular pattern. Those who do not come for treatment, almost never do. A patient, if operated once, Stands a bigger chance to get operated again. Remember, metal expectations come to pass. If you believe you will be healthy all the time, you will be. Those who think they will die at the same age their grandfather or aunt died will probably die at that age itself. Those who say ‘ oh, my days are over’, their days are literally over. If anyone feels ‘everything is over in my life’ (as in the case of those who retire and do nothing later), death will come very fast. Your belief and thoughts are more important than anything else.   

Modern medicine is slowly accepting the reality of mind over matter. Recognizing the power of mind to influence the functioning of the human body is a fundamental step in the long journey to health. Thoughts can cure you or make you sick. Belief is the essential requisite in any treatment. Your disease symptoms disappear only when you have faith in the physician who administers the medication. If the doctor you believe fully, gives you simple sugar tablets for the relief of your pain, it will subside. Similar capsules if administered to cancer patients can even remove cancer symptoms. It is the mind which affects the cure and not the drug.   Belief is the essential requisite in any treatment. The doctor you believe in can cure you, but the same medicine from another doctor whom you do not know may not cure you. Those who believe they will be healthy and live long do become healthy and they generally live longer.

Those who worry about diseases all the time are almost always sick.

Become CEO

If your mind believes something it will find out ways to make it happen. When one believes something can be done -however difficult it is- mind will figure out ways to do it. If one thinks something cannot be done, his mind will bring out all reasons why it can’t be done. If you think you can and if you think you cannot, you are right either way.

This is applicable in anything. You will find ways to overcome your problems if you believe you will overcome them. You can buy a newer and better house if you believe you will. Belief releases powers hitherto unavailable to you and disbelief brings in impediments.

If you are just pulling on trying hard to make both ends meet, you can believe you will find out a better, more paying job. If a degree/diploma/skill is required you will take/acquire it privately continuing to work, and land up in a far better position.

There is nothing impossible. Thinking makes it so. If you believe the impossible can be done you will. If you are a traditional guy believing nothing can be changed you will always like the status quo.  You will live and die with your ordinary job if you do not believe you will improve your position or go for something higher and better. You need to dream and if your dreams are consistently focused on a single goal your mind will believe it and  achieve it.

Think that you are now working in the sales department and you want to become the CEO.  A CEO has to be well-versed with every aspect of the company. Hence you start taking interest in production, accounting, finance, human resource and study the functions of each in detail. May be all your free time will have to be spent for it sacrificing pleasures of idling with friends or watching TV. Think how each work can be done in a better way. Know your products, the market and reflect on the direction your company should take. This will give you more breadth and prepare you for larger responsibilities. Think constantly about how you can can improve your work, how you can give more than expected of you.   

Is believing good or bad?

 There is a very strong belief that those who are religious are good and the others bad. In our place those who don’t believe are despised and found fault with. Hence it would be appropriate to check into the related facts around the world. It is known to one and all that China is an atheistic country but fast advancing. It will be soon the super power in the world (133 crore people one in six of the world population do not believe in God at all) Previous USSR, and the former soviet communist nations followed atheism as their state religion. Even today Cuba follows the same line although some others have been liberalized. Let us take a picture of the developed world where people are more educated, more enterprising, more technically and educationally advanced.

Only 9% of Americans in a 2008 poll said religion was the most important thing in their life, compared with 45% who said family was paramount in their life and 17% who said money and their career was paramount. More than one in three (36 per cent) do not believe in any god in Canada today. A 2006 poll published by Le Monde of France in January 2007[12] found that 51% of the French population are  Catholics (and only half of them  believe in god.  In other worlds  50% of the Catholics (by birth) are atheists. Of the general population 31% of are atheists, In Germany 36% openly declare they don’t believe in a god. 40% of the UK population, 53% of the Swedish,  41% of the Fins,   47% of the Norwegians,  49% of Denmark ,39% of the Swiss, do not believe in any god. In the former communist countries like Estonia, Czech republic and Poland, above 50% do not believe in any god at all. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_EuropeIn) The pattern is in similar lines in all the developed countries and they are less corrupt, willing to help fellow men more and much more advanced. In India we have a different picture. Almost 100% believe in God and we are less educated, a lot more poorer(one in 3 lives in abject poverty; almost one in two is illiterate and among children one in two is malnourished, stunted or sick). India is one of the most corrupt nations of the world. The leaders and politicians, unlike in the advanced nations, are more interested in their own selfish motives than in the development of the nation. Does believing go more easily with illiteracy, poverty, suffering, dishonesty and selfishness?

Succeed with big goals

Success or achievement is our goal of life. Everyone wants success, the best life can offer. No one wants failures, poverty, sickness, wants, mediocrity.  But most of us think that success is destined for only a few. Why a few only succeed and the vast majority are crawling or living in mediocrity? 

        If you believe you can succeed you will and if you think you will fail you are certain to fail. Ask yourself, ‘do I believe I will succeed?’ If your answer is a spontaneous yes, there is no doubt you will be a success. If your answer is no, still you can succeed. You have to bring your mind to believe that you will succeed.

There is nothing magical about the power of belief. Belief generates the power, skill and energy needed to go and win. The majority of the young people who start with a career do not believe they will succeed. And they do not reach the top. Since they do not believe they will succeed, their input is below average and they remain at the bottom of the rungs. But a few march forward with the belief and the how to reach the top is revealed to them by their brain. Strong belief makes it figure out the ways, means and the how to. They take initiatives to climb up the ladder.  When the mind thinks of mediocrity or lowly status, it attracts ways and means to support the belief.

Our mind is a thought factory. It produces thousands of thoughts a day. There are thoughts of success and thoughts of failures. The latter is more prevalent. It is easy for your brain to find out reason why you will not succeed.  It will show you so many alibis.  And you walk into the traps of failure you set for yourself. How to get believing thoughts of success?  Start thinking about success and the reasons for the same. Say to yourself, ‘I will win’, ‘I have the ability’ and ‘I can reach anywhere’. Keep in your mind all your successes, courageous acts, confident encounters, all your strengths. You are in fact better than what you think. Start keeping big goals in front of you. The effort to focus big or small ones are the same. Big ideas and big plans are easier to achieve than mediocre ones as you more inspired to go after the really big goals.        

Are we blindly believing?

Have you ever thought about why you believe what you do?  Therefore are several reasons for someone to believe in a faith or a in a culture or in a political party. As people feel they cannot explain the existence or origin of say the earth, solar system, the universe and life itself (they are generally in awe of the whole thing), they believe a supernatural being created them. Long time back  we didn't know the cause of a lot of things and that is how deification of natural phenomena took place. . But today we know the cause and the origin of most of them.  But the force of habit still compels us to believe what people have believed for generations. Today, the last few remaining questions seem to be “how did the universe come to be” and “what is the origin of life”. Although there are scientific explanations, people still tend to see the hand of a supernatural power behind the same. Millions of them will be satisfied only with such an explanation.  The universe seems to be too complex, too orderly and too beautiful, to have appeared naturally. The complexity, beauty, and order are just a part of the way energy becomes matter which evolves into the various things we see here. They are not by-products of a conscious design but that is how they got evolved and came to an equilibrium state..  

People have lost the ability to question anything. The force of habit, tradition and the early childhood programming have made us accept whatever we have been made to believe, and follow our cultural traditions including our dress code and food habits. The Americans feel their culture is the best in the world. We feel theirs is not all that good and ours is the best.  As I always say people have their faith,  native tongue  and the culture of their parents, which makes all of them a  matter of chance – if you were born in a Hindu family you would be a Hindu, in a Muslim family a Moslem, in a Christian family a Christian and so on. It was a pure coincidence that you came to believe it but now you feel so sure it is the  “real” one to follow.  

You feel that your faith in something greater than yourself gives your life a meaning.  Life is meaningless, so ephemeral, so pointless and so uncertain; surely, there has to be something more, something more concrete and an afterlife would fill the vacuum.  Many people have felt the presence or the touch of a supernatural being. Feelings, emotions and sensations are subjective. When you or any one for that matter strongly believes in anything such emotional experiences are inevitably produced by the brain. There can even be unusual experiences too which make you believe in something supernatural. We all feel that life in this world is meaningless unless there’s something afterwards. No matter what you do, you die and turn to dust, what difference does it make whatever you do in your present life? So we are compelled to believe that there’s something more.

Mankind wants to believe that there will be the establishment of some kind of an absolute and perfect justice  even if only after death. That way you console yourself that a wrong doer will be punished and good guy rewarded. There is a lot of the sense of community that comes from belonging to a group. Further, a lot of people don’t want the burden and the responsibility of having to think and decide what to do by themselves; they are followers and they just like to follow what has been prescribed by a an all-knowing Being.