Mind Matters Most - Chapter Twelve

MMM012

Be Wary of what you accept as a belief!

In this chapter I will describe how some of our false beliefs can hold us back from our full potential.  Also how, once we get rid of these beliefs, we have greater freedom to choose what we want to do or be.   I will provide some examples from my own experiences of false thinking.  Some of these beliefs kept me from living a full and happy life for years.   I’m sure that you have instances too; perhaps some that are even now holding you back.   Shed them!  Get rid of them!   Dissolve them from your being!   For the freer you are of these untruths, the more you will enjoy your life.  These are burdens upon you.   So, hopefully, once you’ve read what I’ve written  here, you will be helped somewhat towards this elusive thing we call happiness.  

Also, I will feature a couple of stories which come from the work of Dr. Maxwell Maltz, and Dr. Joseph Murphy, both famous bestselling authors.  These stories illustrate so clearly how a radical change in belief can save the lives of those who would clearly have died if those beliefs had not changed.  So examine what you believe about yourself �" you are far greater than you think.

Astrology

Firstly though, I’ll also talk a little about Astrology.  I’m not saying Astrology does not have some merit.   It does.  However, a great many people read their star signs in the newspapers or popular magazines and feel that this is how their day or week will work out.   Such a belief in what is written can cause a lot of anxiety.  This is especially so for those people who might tend towards pessimism; it can spoil their week.  I’ll write a little more about this later on.  Now to my own experiences.

When I was very young I read a book by a then famous astrologer, Chiero.   I guess I more than read it, I studied it.   I was fascinated.  Being only a lad of around twelve or so I believed almost everything I read.   Chiero’s interpretation of my star sign, Aries, placed on me all manner of both favorable and restrictive projections which I fully believed.   A few of the things I do recall were that I’d spend a lot of time ‘under the surgeon’s knife.’   Untrue.  At seventy-eight I’ve had three minor operations in my life.   These have been spaced across some forty years �" hardly ‘a lot of time.’ 

 Another was that I’d be in danger from animals.  Well, I’ve owned pet cats and dogs  all of my life and apart from a scratch or two, generally in play, I haven’t been in danger from animals any more than the average.  Even my pet budgerigars have done a lot more singing than pecking.   I have lived in environments where there were venomous snakes and spiders.  I’ve lived where there are three-ton bull elephant seals on the beaches.   These can be aggressive at times.  Only felt in a mild danger once �" as did every other expeditioner on Macquarie Island who got too close to an old bull guarding his harem.   So I can denounce Mr. Chiero’s generalization that we Arians are more subject to animal dangers than any other of the eleven star signs.   Well, this is the observation of this particular chap, anyway.

Still another belief instilled in me was a small child was that I wouldn’t amount to much.   I was small, miniscule almost; a tiny boy.  A fellow called David Middleton and I were the smallest lads in our school.  We were ‘singled out’ for tests: weighed and measured at regular intervals.  At age fourteen, when I left school, I was still quite small.   At seventeen I watched other kids younger than me sprout like bean poles whilst I was just five feet four inches in height.  I was so envious it hurt.

Neither was I particularly bright, was the message I’d been getting at school.  Generally, I was in the bottom third of the class in most subjects except in English Composition.   It seemed I had a vivid imagination and could generally write well.  But I put this down to my love of reading.   I suspect my love of adventure stories made all the difference.  Despite this, I came across as pretty average.

Keep working on yourself; keep growing

My physical and assumed intellectual limitations did not stop me joining the Royal Australian Navy, where I grew a couple more inches and began to fill out.   At twenty, I started weight training: Olympic lifting.  At thirty, though only ten-and-a-half stone, I could heft well over my bodyweight over my head and dead-lift a 400 pound barbell off  the floor.   I once ‘quarter-squatted 540 pounds �" a quarter of a ton.   I became very strong for my size and weight.   Neither did my size stop me from being selected as an Antarctic expeditioner at age forty despite rigorous physical and mental testing.  One of the requisites for consideration by the Australian Antarctic Expedition recruiters was to be ‘robust’ and I was quite proud that I now fitted this category.

Overcoming my belief in my limitations came gradually when I began to compare my bodily strength, energy, endurance, creativity and various other qualities with those around me.  I did not find myself wanting in many departments.   Many limiting beliefs were left behind.   But none of it came overnight. 

 The fourth thing for me was that, according to what I’d read about myself in Chiero’s book on Astrology, I’d have difficulty understanding and getting along with women.  This really started to concern me when I turned seventeen or so.  I wanted romance in my life.  So this played on my mind.   Despite this, the evidence suggested in Chiero’s predictions was not correct.

Between seventeen and twenty-four I had my share of girlfriends.   I had three long-term relationships, two lasting well over a year �" the last, fifty-four years and still counting.  I also had quite a number of short term relationships ranging from days to weeks before and in my navy years.  I did all right.  True, I was jilted by a girl I’d asked to marry me.  That hurt terribly for a long time.   But I did meet and ask another �" my present wife - a year or two later and am �"as I said - still married to her more than five decades later.  In fact, the evidence seems to suggest that I was attractive to women and got on well with them, and still do.    Still, for many years I had this “you don’t understand women” hanging over my head.  Chiero’s book caused me a lot of trouble.   It took a definite statement to eradicate this belief forever.

That statement came in 1977 when, at age forty-one I wrote my fourth book, a fictional story, a romance, and handed it to a woman doctor to edit.   This worldly woman said to me after reading some of it.  “Tom.  I’ll say this about you �" you really do know a lot about how women feel.”  

Well!

What could I say?  I long suspected that there was nothing inferior to my understanding and empathy towards the opposite sex compared with most other men.  Here was announced evidence of it.  My earlier belief that I might not be ‘quite right’ with the fairer sex was shattered forever.   Why had I believed this rubbish for so long?

Don’t let other people’s opinions undermine your belief in yourself

The point I make here is that because of a number of beliefs I’d taken on in my early years, I was mistaken right down the line for a long, long time.   Don’t let it happen to you.  Do not accept the opinion of others, even if they seem to be authorities in their fields.   Do not accept fully until you have tested the veracity of their ideas.   Keep an open mind on what you can and cannot do.   Be like, as I’ve said earlier, the man who was asked if he could play the piano who replied,

“I don’t know.  I haven’t tried yet.”

Of course, none of what I’ve mentioned above could be classified as life-threatening beliefs.  Now I’d like to mention two such stories.  The first comes from the experiences of the late Dr. Maxwell Maltz, in his bestseller, Psycho-cybernetics.  

Story from Psycho-cybernetics

Dr Maltz was a highly skilled plastic surgeon.  He was approached by an Afro-American who, in the book he referred to as Mr. Russell   Mr. Russell asked him if he would fix his rather prominent lower lip.   To quote Dr. Maltz

“I performed a cosmetic on ‘Mr. Russell’s lower lip for a very modest fee, under the condition that he tell his girl friend that the operation had cost him his entire savings of a lifetime.  His girl had no objection to his spending money on her, and she insisted that she loved him.  But she explained to him that she could never marry him because of his too large lower lip.”

Of course, when the news got back to the gold-digging girlfriend that Mr. Russell had no money she dropped him like a hot-frying pan.  But she did worse.  She was so angry and vengeful she approached a witch doctor to put a curse on her ex boyfriend.    Then she told the boyfriend what she had done.

At first Mr. Russell didn’t worry too much about that curse.  Then he began to notice something.  He felt a small, hard ‘bump’ on the inside of his lip.  He saw a friend who told him to see another friend.  This last assured Mr. Russell he did indeed been cursed and the curse was taking its course.  He was told he had ‘the African Bug,’ and that the African Bug would eat away his strength and vitality. It would eventually kill him.

Well, from that moment on the big, strong Mr. Russell began to deteriorate.  Why?   Because both he and his girlfriend had been raised in the West Indies where Voodoo was rife.   He believed in black magic.   Mr. Russell now fully believed that the curse the Voodoo man had put on him would bring about his demise.   He lost 30 pounds in body weight.   A man, who was once fit and athletic and stood tall at six feet four, was beginning to look like a sick and frail old man.  

When he went back to see Dr. Malz after some weeks it seemed he had aged twenty years at least.   Dr. Maltz was shocked.  Naturally, he asked Mr. Russell what had happened to cause this deterioration.   Once he heard the man’s story he determined to do something about it.   I quote again from Maltz’s book.

“After a quick examination of his mouth I assured Mr. Russell I could get rid of the African Bug in less than 30 minutes, which I did.  The bump which had caused all the trouble was merely a small bit of scar tissue from his operation.  I removed it, held it in my hand, and showed it to him.  He gave a sigh of relief, and it seemed as if there was an almost immediate change in his posture and expression.”

With the African Bug removed, Mr. Russell quickly recovered.  

Some weeks later Dr. Malz received a letter from Mr. Russell along with a photograph.  It was a photo of Russell and his new bride.  He’d gone back home and married his childhood sweetheart.   The man in the picture was the first Mr. Russell.   He had regained his health and vitality.  He’d dropped twenty years from his age.   The belief which had aged him a couple of decades had been reversed.   All of this had been caused by a false belief and then a restoration to reality.   This is an example of how a belief that we are sick can make us sick.  Conversely, how a belief that the causes of our sickness can be removed and we can be restored to full health.

Our second story is every bit as dramatic.    This one comes from Dr. Joseph Murphy’s book, The Power of your Subconscious Mind.  This is a book very worth owning, I might add.

Story from the Power of Your Subconscious Mind

John’s elderly father was very sick.  The old man had a lung condition and it was obvious he wouldn’t last long.   He was fading fast.   The doctors expected him to die.

Now John knew that his father was a very religious man, a man who believed strongly in the healing power of Jesus Christ.   His father believed in miracles.  That’s when John told him of a story of how a friend of his had gone to an ancient monastery in the Middle East and had brought back a ring which had set into it a piece of the actual cross Jesus Christ had been crucified on.  John said that he’d bought the ring off the man for a lot of money.   You see, the ring was reputed to have miraculous qualities.  If anyone touched the ring they would be cured of any illness.   This was the legend of the ring, as told to the old man by his son.

Did he have the ring with him now?  Yes.  Could his father see the ring?   Of course he could.  Here it is.  John handed it over.   His sick father grabbed the ring and kissed it.  He held it to his heart.  There were tears of relief in his eyes.  Could he keep it?   Of course he could.   So the ring changed hands.   The sick father, then around seventy, recovered from his illness and went on to live right into his late eighties before dying of something altogether different.

Of course, John never told the old man that he’d had an old fashioned ring made up by a jeweler who lived close by.  It had been deliberately designed to look very ancient, and the piece of hardwood in it was just a chip from an old desk in the son’s office.

Amazing what belief can do.   Of course, the son never revealed the truth to the old man, just in case knowing the truth brought about a relapse.   Nothing is more powerful on us than idea accepted as true by our subconscious mind.

More on Astrology

Earlier in this chapter I said I’d mention further about Astrology.  I will do so briefly here.  There is no doubt that the planets and stars influence our lives.  The sun is a star.  It virtually governs everything that happens on earth Nature-wise.  The moon is a satellite planet.  It moves millions of cubic miles of water around the world.  Other planets and stars further out probably have their influences too, so I do not deny that there is a lot to Astrology.  What I do decry is the accuracy of those who proclaim they can predict what those influences will be and when pertaining to people born on Planet Earth.

I am not even denouncing the possible efficacy of Astrological Charts �" providing they have the exact time of birth and the exact place of birth right town to the minute in time and a mile or two either way on the ground.   We know that the angles at which rays strike the earth are significant, e.g. the difference between sunset and midday, or between a full and new moon.   But the interpretations are the weakness here.   Get just two astrologers to predict something and their interpretations will be different.   Get three or five and they, too, will all be different.

Now, if we look at a newspaper or magazine and read an astrological prediction for, say, Capricorn, we are looking at one twelfth of the population of the world.  That is, hundreds of millions of people are supposed to have roughly similar experiences that day, week or month.  Need I say more?  

 

Change your beliefs and you change your life

As an astrologer sister-in-law of mine said to me when she wrote out my own horoscope way back in 1984.  I quote her here:  “People do have free will and their reaction to various events can have a big bearing on their destiny.  So it is really up to each individual person to use opportunities or take care in adverse situations, thereby making the most of their charts.”

I emphasize the words, ‘Free will.”   “Reaction to events” implies that the reactions are automatic, not choices.  But the truth is we have free will to choose.   It is by our choices that we make our lives.   So, if you can, become aware of your beliefs �" especially if you feel they are holding you back in some way �" then set about to change them!  Change your thinking and you change your beliefs.  Change your beliefs and you change your life.   The stars might provide ‘propensities’ but if we remain aware and choose, the poetic lines: “ I am the captain of my ship, the master of my soul, “ are absolutely true.   It really does mean - Mind Matters Most.