02.06 – Transforming False Beliefs – Part 1

For me to glibly tell you to “Follow your instincts” is easy. For you to actually do it, in our modern world, is virtually impossible. We humans are, apparently, the first species on this planet to have the ability to intentionally and dramatically disregard and ignore our instincts. Our arrogant cleverness… our over-reliance on our mental faculties, has greatly imbalanced our ability to holistically perceive and tune into our natural world. We have lost touch with Nature and with ourselves so thoroughly that many people now believe human instincts are primitive and irrelevant.

You may say that you can no longer trust your instincts… and you are correct. That is because you can no longer feel them. If you can’t properly feel them, then you definitely won’t trust them. An instinctive urge may pop up from time to time, but your conscious intellect overrides it almost immediately. When conscious intellect kicks in, you begin questioning or doubting what your instincts are telling you. And even if you do get an instinctual urge and you initially agree to go with it, you intellectual programming (aka beliefs) will resist, argue, and debate you about your decision.

For example, you get the instinctual urge to drink water because you are thirsty. The mind kicks in and asks endless questions, “What kind of water? Is it pure enough? Does it have minerals in it? How much should I drink? Drink now, or later?” The left-brain intellect always needs to over-analyze everything to a ridiculous degree. It gets annoying. You just have to say to yourself, “Stop!” And simply drink some water.

Like billions of other people, you have defaulted to relying on the mental constructs, theories, and beliefs, created by other people, for your answers and guidance. You do this instead of relying on yourself. At least 90% of the so-called knowledge and beliefs you have taken on throughout your life are from other people. You did not create your knowledge and beliefs by yourself. They have been programmed into you by others – parents, teachers, friends, employers, preachers, doctors, textbooks, scriptures, media of all kinds, and so on. Someone else told you their beliefs, along with their built-in opinions and assumptions, and you swallowed them whole, with little if any consideration or examination.

Or perhaps you took on beliefs and habits by example, watching and listening to what others said and did, and you simply mimicked them… following along without question. You believed them and made their beliefs and actions yours.

Going back to the previous example, you think to yourself, “I was told that 8 glasses of water per day is necessary for proper hydration. So that is what I must do to stay healthy.” The truth is that 8 glasses of water per day is simply someone else’s idea of how much water to drink. That so-called ‘truth of hydration’ has nothing to do with optimal health, which you will learn as you put into practice the Natural Hygiene way of life you are learning here.

This business of taking on the beliefs and habits of other can be very tricky. Of course we each need to learn some things… perhaps many things… from others. But most of us are NOT trained how to properly evaluate knowledge from others, and how to truly make it our own after we verify it for ourselves.

What usually happens is that other people’s beliefs become your beliefs, and they are integrated into you… they become a major part of your self-identity. When beliefs become part of you, part of your self-identity, you will find yourself defending those beliefs when challenged. In fact, what you are actually doing is defending someone else’s beliefs that you passively took on.

Your treasured beliefs are a huge part of your ego sense of self-identity, a sense of self-identity which you secretly cherish and treasure above all else… though you may have never thought of it that way.

Many of the beliefs you hold are false, but you do not know that, because deep-seated beliefs are very difficult to objectively see, to challenge, to examine, and to eliminate. Rather than openly considering and evaluating new ideas and concepts, most people automatically defend their current belief system… because defending your beliefs is defending your ‘ego-self’… your self-identity. You treasure your self-identity, so you protect it by defending it… rather than remaining open to new, and better information.

If you are beginning to see what I am saying – that nearly everything you believe about yourself and the world around you are actually beliefs you have taken on from others – it can be a shocking realization. But don’t worry… we’ve all done it countless times throughout our lives. I am as guilty as anyone. Most people have made it a habit to automatically believe so-called ‘authorities’ without questioning them, or thinking it through for themselves. And nearly all of those people continue to operate that way, often throughout their whole lives. They are stuck… afraid to think for themselves.

But you are here, now… ready to learn, and ready to think about and question everything you learn. It’s even more important to question everything you currently believe. Now is the perfect time to become the confident, wise, self-governing, and self-reliant adult you are meant to be.

“Let us have Truth, though the heavens fall!” – Herbert Shelton

The path back to truth, seeing clearly, regaining health and sanity, requires that you commit to ‘unlearning’ your false programmed beliefs. If you want to naturally and easily reconnect to the amazing wisdom that is already built into you – your instincts and your intuition – you must free them from the suffocating wet blankets of false beliefs that are smothering them.

Unlearning falsehood is necessary before you can learn higher truths. To ‘see straight’ is to give yourself far greater clarity about all matters in your life. To feel your healthy instincts and intuition, you must remove the obstacles which are blocking them from being felt.

This is much easier said than done. But it is the only true and permanent way forward. It is the way forward that consistently gives positive results. You cannot maintain your current false beliefs, while adding new knowledge to them, and expect everything to fit together without friction.

You cannot seek and properly apply higher truth when you continue to carry false beliefs within you. The inner conflict becomes unbearable. One or the other – old beliefs or new, better truths – must be rejected. In most cases, for most people, comfortable and familiar beliefs are more important and valuable to them than newer, higher truths. It requires strong inner conviction to desire Truth more than pretending to feel good and happy about your current self.