How Beliefs Shape Reality
- Beliefs act like filters in the brain and shape your reality.
- By changing beliefs you can change the reality you see and experience.
- Limiting beliefs will limit your life!
I have talked before about how beliefs shape reality and that in order to do something, you must first believe that it is possible to do (you can find the article on beliefs here). Well IÂ recently found an excellent example at nevermindthis.com to illustrate this point.
Look at this picture, what do you see?
As an adult I can say with almost complete certainty that you saw an erotic image of a woman in the arms of a man. You saw this image because as an adult you are aware of what sex is, and have been exposed to sexual images throughout your life.
However this picture is a trick, an illusion.
Belief Systems Influence Your Reality   Â
Experimenters have found that when children are asked what the picture shows, they say dolphins and cannot see the erotic image!
As young children are not aware of sex, their belief systems only allow for them to see things which they think are possible. Since they are unaware of sex, it is not a possibility for them and therefore does not exist.
Now that you are aware there are dolphins in the picture, try and find them.
I See Dolphins!
Once you have found the dolphins return to this page in a few hours or tomorrow and look at the image again. What you will find is that you can now easily see both the dolphins and the couple.
So what has happened here?
This image shows us quite literally how our beliefs selectively filter our reality and therefore determine what we see and experience.
The Reality Of Beliefs
Without one piece of crucial information (i.e. the existence of dolphins) a portion of reality associated with that information is not available to you.
In other words, if you didn’t know there were dolphins in the picture you most likely would not notice them.
However once you are made aware of that information, your perception of reality expands and you can now see both the erotic image and the dolphins.
Limiting Beliefs Limit Reality
Think about the implications of this in everyday life.
If your beliefs influence what you see and experience, how are the beliefs you currently hold shaping your own reality? Are your beliefs allowing you to see and experience the things you want to see and experience? Or the things you don’t?
What May Seem Impossible To One Person May Seem Possible To Another
It is also important to ensure that your beliefs are yours and yours alone. Many of our beliefs are created or influenced by TV and other people.
However these beliefs often give us a false view of reality and only serve to limit our own beliefs or make us believe things that are not true.
I gave an example of this in a previous article. It was the story of the 4 minute mile and how nobody believed it was possible to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
However one man did believe it was possible, and as soon as he ran a mile in under 4 minutes lots of people soon began to do the same thing, whereas previously they had tried and failed (it took just 2 weeks for someone to beat his record!).
Learning From Beliefs…
What we learn from this simple picture is that our beliefs have an enormous influence on shaping our reality, and if you saw the lectures by Bruce Lipton on beliefs, you know they also have an enormous influence on your body.
In the next few articles I will be finishing this introductory section about the subconscious, with a few more techniques designed to change limiting beliefs into beliefs that empower you.
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November 2nd, 2007 at 8:34 am
Excellent!
November 6th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
It took me awhile, but I did see the dolphins. Sometimes innocence helps us to see what we might not expect to see.