Were do your beliefs come from?
As you come into the world you are a blank slate (Tabula Rasa) but have certain inherited attributes for example instincts and reflexes like eating, breathing and other rooting reflexes. These are the things that are stored in your subconscious mind as well as being in control of your other bodily functions.
As you go through life you form habits, beliefs and values and you go through experiences that form memories that are stored in the unconscious mind.
These beliefs and values and habits are determined by your culture, parents, friends, television, music, books, politics, assumptions and misunderstandings.
Once we have a belief any information from these sources are filtered so that we strengthen our original belief and we reject any information that may contradict our belief.
For example if someone believes they are ugly, stupid, incompetent them know amount of reassurance from friends or family can help them because they reject and information that contradicts their belief. This is most notable in body dismorphic disorder
This filtering is called the conscious critical factor and filters information at an unconscious level and starts to form primary and secondary believes around a certain subject.
These primary and secondary beliefs are like a chemical structure were the primary belief is at the centre and connects to the secondary beliefs to form a structure.
If you look at the diagram below you will see that the primary belief labelled A has secondary beliefs that are linked to it. This diagram is a simplified version and there could be hundreds of interconnections with lots of junctions and configurations.
The secondary beliefs are different sizes and at different distances depending on how many times these beliefs have been reinforced which is one of the ways the belief get there power over our behaviour the other is dependant on how much emotion the suggestion evokes.
When we have a belief that was been repeated and repeated it is strengthened and also when there is a lot of emotion to the suggestion that strengthens the belief.
Research suggests that the unconscious mind receives 20million bits of information per second but we can only process 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information at a time consciously so all the rest is filtered by our conscious critical factor and if it strengthens our belief it is let in to the unconscious mind or rejected it if contradicts what has already been stored in the unconscious mind.
This filtering system is one of the reasons witnesses give different accounts of a crime even when they are standing side by side and it also explains way different people have different perceptions assumptions beliefs and values.
Before the age of 3 the filter system is very weak and whatever we are told is normally believed with out question because we have nothing to compare it to and as we get old the filter becomes stronger and stronger so that less and less suggestions get in.
The filtering system gets stronger as we age and at the age of 12 it is fully formed so that any suggestions that we get from then on is unlikely to change your beliefs although the filter can be by passed if there is enough emotion generated or using hypnosis or a lot of repetition.
We believe these beliefs so strongly that we don’t think of them as beliefs but as knowledge and our mind will always find a way to fulfil our beliefs.
Some examples of this are the belief that doctors had about it being impossible of the human being to run a mile in under four minute. It used to be believe that if people went over 30 miles an hour there lungs would not be strong enough to breath out and would fill up until they exploded, before Galileo people believed the world was flat but these people didn’t say they believed these “facts” they said they knew this was correct.
The study of knowledge and belief is called epistemology and it studies how when know what we know.
As you read this you may begin to wonder what you have believed that may be incorrect. Maybe you have been told something incorrect and believed it or have misinterpreted something that has formed your opinion of someone or something.
What did you used to believe that you now don’t?
With in the unconscious mind there are different depths, so for example your name and telephone number are close to the surface and easily retrievable but we may find it harder to recall child hood experiences or information we had learnt at school.
Every part of the mind has a protective function as its main goal although this can cause conflict because the unconscious does not have the ability to assess whether what it is doing is harmful it just does what it has been told to done with out question.
