The Mechanics Of Beliefs Summary

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

Most people don’t have a clue about how beliefs actually work. It is very important to know this because you could mistake falsehood for truth, therefore you need to learn about epistemology of you want to live a fulfilling life. Your beliefs restrict your ability to rise your consciousness and distort perception.  Your ability to rise your consciousness is restricted by all the beliefs you hold, and most of them are totally wrong.

One of the fundamental challenges in life is to distinguish what is true and what is false, so how you do it? The fundamental problem with beliefs is the following: You link to think that you can represent reality with your ideas. Ideas are not actually the truth and a representation is not the same as the thing that is represented. You have a lot of ideas about how reality should be so you are not being open to direct experience of reality.

You need to inquire about your process of inquiry.

What is a belief? An idea, a thought is something you think is either true or false. You have:

-          Personal beliefs

-          Social beliefs

-          Political beliefs

-          Scientific beliefs

-          Epistemic beliefs

-          Metaphysical beliefs

Features of the mechanism of beliefs:

1.       Every belief held feel true

2.       You don’t hold most of your beliefs on solid evidence and reason. You simply latch on the beliefs that seems right without really inquiring them

3.       You don’t consciously select your beliefs: You just absorb your beliefs from your culture.

4.       99% of your beliefs, you never directly experienced them, you just take them on faith.

5.       Beliefs generate strong emotions, fuel behaviors and are addictive. The mind will forfeit happiness and truth in the name of preserving homeostasis

6.       All beliefs are circular: Beliefs are based on more beliefs, and those beliefs are justified by more beliefs and so on.

7.       They determine what is possible and impossible: What you are able to do is limited by your beliefs

8.       Beliefs are not looking out for you (look at them as a meme). They don’t care about your happiness or success. They are like viruses that reside in your mind

9.       There are meta-beliefs: They are the beliefs you have about your beliefs

a.       “I don’t hold any beliefs”

b.       “Most of my beliefs are accurate”

c.       “It is good to believe certain things”

d.       “Some beliefs are safe and cannot be doubted”

e.       “There are no alternatives to holding beliefs”

f.        “Dropping my beliefs isn’t so important”

g.       “Epistemology doesn’t make a difference in my life”

h.       “No one knows anything for sure”

i.         “I’m already aware of my limiting beliefs”

Beliefs are dangerous because:

-          They are self-fulfilling prophesies

-          They tend to neglect contradictory data

-          They are in the way of having a radical new experience that transform the way you see reality

-          They create emotional reactivity, arrogance and inflexibility

There are 3 epistemic attitudes that people have in life:

a.       Proudly defending your beliefs

b.       Expanding your beliefs so they reflect reality better

c.       To realize that reality has nothing to do with beliefs

How to apply this?

-          Make your mission to live outside beliefs

-          Take epistemology seriously

-          Drop your pet theories, you don’t need them.

-          Change your attitude from arranging your beliefs to realize that there is no end to investigation

-          Question EVERY belief you have

-          Hold your beliefs lightly

-          Direct experience is king

[ChimpBrain]

Thanks again for always making these threads man!

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

@ChimpBrain No worries :D. I do it for myself mostly 

[Zane]

After watching the video, I discovered that my attitude towards beliefs is the middle ground which is expanding beliefs to discover more of the world. I've studied elements of Christianity, Judaism, science, philosophy, Buddhism, Paganism and Quakerism and I have a growing fascination with alternative and fringe ideologies that go beyond the mainstream political binary of Democrat and Republican. I'm particularly fascinated by Socialism and Libertarianism and there are elements that I both agree with and strongly disagree with. I realize that I'm mastering open-mindedness. I don't want to box myself rigidly to one worldview or belief system! I've also been applying direct experience by sitting out in the sunlight on a Fall, Spring and Summer day and detaching from my mind and simply focus on enjoying the moment. When things go wrong like delays or a friend being deeply stressed out, I'm focusing on detaching from the emotions of impatience and rage so I don't worsen the situation and I focus on being flexible. I also focus on behaving relaxed and calm by channeling a relaxed Zen master. However, I can always deepen my knowledge of Epistemology and study inner beliefs more. I've deconstructed and challenged the belief that "I'm stupid" "I'm a failure" "school is hard" and "conflict is bad" and discovering alternatives and taking action. My highest aspiration is to have a completely open mind and a deep intrinsic curiosity where my mind entertains ideas yet doesn't cling to beliefs or rejects ideas. Instead of rejecting beliefs, I think a great alternative is a balance of healthy skepticism and open-mindedness. One of my deep personal values is free thinking, intellectual openness and flexibility, curiosity and fascination. For example, instead of blindly hating Donald Trump, i piece together a holistic puzzle about the Donald and using various sources such as his business strategy, his strengths and weaknesses, and especially his psychology and his childhood and I love asking myself questions.

What I discovered about Donald Trump is that he is a fatally flawed Greek villain right out of Shakespeare! Here is a man who was indoctrinated into business by his father and pressured to adopt that killer instinct! Trump, in school, was a violent bully who would deliberately cause trouble and see himself as above the law and he even punched his own music teacher. Here is a man with a long cycle of failed businesses, failed marriages, scandals, and bad decisions and yet somehow he has this power and impunity! He is now seeking the highest level of power in the country and I strongly doubt that it's for public service. Trump embodies megalomania because he believes that power and being rich is the highest aspiration in life and he is so deeply entrenched in stage Blue/Orange thinking of pro-business and "success." He sees life as a win-lose game at best or a zero sum game at worst because he's deeply entrenched in his Corporate America worldview! Trump is so fascinating to learn about and I feel like I'm becoming his biographer. I love drawing parallels to historical figures and historical events and fiction to unpack Donald Trump and how his personality applies to humanity and society! 

Edited October 18, 2016 by Zane

[Xpansion]

Fantastic information. Thanks.