The mind and our belief patterns
It is often the case that we regard our mind and thus logical and rational thinking as the highest form of mental activity. But this has only the reason that one is not really clear about the function of the mind.
So how does the mind work? The mind has the task to explain things and to put them into a logical context. To do this, one first makes an assumption, and it is on this assumption that the explanation and the associated logic must be based. This assumption is then thought through by logic and if it proves to be conclusive, it becomes the truth for us and from this truth we then develop a belief. This would be the simplest and straightforward way. However, it is often the case that we adopt the opinions of others and make them our beliefs. Many times it is useful, because if someone now invites us to fly with im to Alaska, we will take warm clothes. Because we expect it to be cold in Alaska. How do we come to this assumption? We have certainly read a lot about Alaska or watched reports on TV, and they show that. Here we have the simplest case of belief formation through constant repetition of the same information. And as soon as we don't question a belief further, it becomes a fact for us. Quite a lot of beliefs, which we do not question further, we also take up in childhood, because the evaluating and discriminating mind has its full capacity only with the beginning of puberty, especially until the sixth year of life we take up all information as if in hypnosis. This makes sense insofar as we as humans have to find our way in a rather complex world and could never absorb enough basic knowledge if we already question everything as infants.
But if we once question our accumulated beliefs, only very few are based on our own experience, most are based on the experiences of others. Let's take gravity as an example. Everyone can experience its effects for itself, only the explanation, which one learned sometime once in the physics instruction, is first only the opinion of others. And all from it concluded experiences as for example the gravitation laws which describes among other things the movement of the planets are based on this opinion which does not correspond to ours, but which we have taken over presumably because it seems conclusive to us.
What has this to do then with our problems? Quite simply, many of our problems derive from beliefs which we have taken up sometime once, which we do not question further and which have become therefore a fact for us.
An example? Let's say we caught a cold as a child. Before that, we were outside in the rain and got wet socks. Our mother then explained to us that we caught a cold because we had wet socks. We then added this to our collection of beliefs without any thought of our own, and so it may be that even as adults we still get a cold every time we get wet socks. And this even in high summer.
This once as an example of a great belief set and we have countless of them. Some of them are good for us, some of them are not so good. And what does our mind do with them? From the moment we have made an assumption and felt it to be true, the mind derives countless other assumptions from this one assumption. And so the most fantastic thought structures, also called paradigms, are created, based on some own experience, a lot of assumed opinion and a vast amount of logical conclusions.
But we should ask ourselves whether all our truths really stand up to scrutiny.
Let's just take a few common "facts" that are generally accepted.
The first is "sugar is unhealthy." A pretty great set of beliefs, because without sugar our brains don't work, the brain can only process sugar. Instead, they try to talk us into who knows how many products that don't contain sugar, but sweetener, aspartame, which is suspected of not being very beneficial (no, I'm not building a new belief system here).
The second is: "Smoking causes lung cancer". When I think about it, I can think of many cases where non-smokers have gotten lung cancer, and they weren't passive smokers either. And the nation's smoker, former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, lived to be 97 and did not die of lung cancer. And he really was a chain smoker. Could it be that there are other factors that determine whether someone gets lung cancer or not?
A third belief, which is very common, is: "You can only get rich at the expense of others". And I have to admit, in some cases it is true that people have accumulated their wealth at the expense of others. And then there are also quite a few who have made an ingenious invention or written a book of success, who have enriched people and have become wealthy as a result.
So we see that it is always worthwhile to question one's beliefs.
