Why do people believe certain ideas?
by Vic Shayne
author
Consciousness: The potentiality of all existence
People do not decide what to believe. Beliefs begin with the birth of the sense of self, which is also called the “me,” the “I,” the egoic self, the egoic mind, and so on. Beliefs come from psychological conditioning of the mind, and to change beliefs requires reconditioning this same mind. It takes the totality of consciousness to make this happen.
Why do people believe?
Years ago I read a book by self-proclaimed skeptic Michael Schermer entitled Why People Believe Weird Things. I found it interesting and much of it to be well-founded. However, the book left me unsatisfied because Schermer offered no plausible conclusion as to why anyone believes one idea over another one. So it took me a good many years to search my self before the answer became very apparent.
Belief begins with ‘me’
The egoic self, the “I,” or “me,” is nothing more than a belief that comes about by an accretion of thoughts. These thoughts come from psychological conditioning, especially in early life. The mind is influenced by parents, teachers, authority figures, religious leaders, schools, relatives, the media, society, culture, etc. All of these influences impress themselves upon the mind so that there arises a belief that we are separate from the whole of consciousness, the wholeness of life. In addition to this fundamental belief of an individual self, there arises a considerable supply of other beliefs — beliefs in religious ideas, God or gods, evolution or creationism, Jesus or Mohamed, sins, and on and on. There’s no end to them.
To believe in something means you do not know it to be true and yet you accept the idea as true anyway. There’s no logic to this, but that’s the way it is.
Believing is not your choice
As an aside from the main point of this little article (how beliefs arise) is that it is absurd for religionists to say that there is a God who punishes nonbelievers, because believing is not a choice. Can you force yourself to believe something? Of course not. It would take a pretty shallow-thinking god not to understand this fact of life. So, if you believe God punishes you for not believing in him, then you can feel terrible for the rest of your life, or invent a new god who is much more open-minded and insightful, or you can ignore the whole thing and go on your merry way.
Blame the whole damn thing on the egoic self
The ego is the Great Deceiver, because it fools people into believing that they are apart from all others and all else. It also believes it is the doer and the thinker when, in truth, actions and thoughts arise only due to the total movement of consciousness. Nothing occurs in isolation; all that happens is the result of the entire movement of life. We are one single movement or organism, despite that the egoic self is ignorant of this fact.
Beliefs are formed due to the innate tendencies of the egoic self that requires certain ideas to perpetuate its sense of autonomy and to allay its fears of annihilation and change.
Fear begs for protection, relief, and comfort
Most beliefs arise out of fear. The egoic self, the “me,” is a confused, fearful ball of emotions. This is because we’ve all been taught to believe that we are not the whole, but rather a part of the whole of consciousness (you can substitute the word God for consciousness if you’d like). This makes us believe we are lonely creatures adrift in a hostile world, vulnerable to the whims of outside forces. Ironically, though, we also believe we are the doers who are capable of directing the course of our own lives. In essence, we are fundamentally conflicted.
The “me” believes that it is inseparable from the body and all of its associations, which means that it must protect and defend itself from “the other.” As such, the “me” will cling to certain beliefs for protection and to avoid annihilation. If that means believing in an all-powerful and omniscient god that confers its undying blessings on you for your loyalty, then that’s what you’ll believe in. Conversely, if you believe there is no god and no other being responsible for you but yourself, then that will be your belief.
Both cases — believing in a god or believing there is no god —represent delusional thinking, because neither belief is based on knowing. And, both types of people believe they are isolated from all else. But the belief itself is caused from psychological conditioning. If new conditioning comes about, it is only because the totality of consciousness has impressed upon the egoic mind a need for change. Sometimes such a change happens as the result of tragedy, trauma, life experience, an impressive book or movie, or even pure luck. In any case, though, the egoic self, the “me,” feels it deserves the good or bad that befalls it.
How do you know it’s the egoic mind at work?
We can break down the entirety of existence into five facets (for a lack of a better word): the mind, the body, the egoic mind, consciousness, and the silent stillness. The body is self-explanatory. Consciousness is the totality of all that exists or perceives to exist, including thoughts. The silent stillness is the silent space that underlies, precedes, and permeates everything; and it cannot be described or known by the mind.
The mind is the instrument used to figure things out, solve problems, learn new skills, remember how to operate a car, know where the body resides, and perform myriad tasks so it can navigate the world of forms and expressions. This mind, however, does not have preferences, judgments, criticisms, likes, dislikes, fears, or favorites. It merely performs its duties indifferently. HOWEVER, this same mind becomes conditioned from the earliest age as our parents begin to inculcate us on how to be a human being. Parents tell us we have a nose, eyes, and a head; that we have relatives and a religion; that it’s preferable to pee in a toilet instead of in a diaper; that people of different skin colors are not as good as we are; and so on. Some of this conditioning can be practical, but most of it feeds into a delusion that we are separate from all other people, nature, animals, and life itself.
We are literally taught to believe in things we do not know to be true. We accept secondhand information as fact. What’s more, our parents and caretakers have been conditioned the same way, as have their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, and so on back to the original human being. And this is what makes beliefs literally insane.
But, you may ask: Can a belief be beautiful or helpful? If you believe so.
