Believe it or not
In his book Healing and Belief, Norman Cousins summarizes medical data showing that the efficacy of medicines and medical treatment generally is 25% due to the drug or treatment and 75% the result of a patient's BELIEF in the drug or treatment. During his lifetime, Cousins fended off a life-threatening disease and a massive coronary, both times using his own regimen of nutritional and emotional support systems in lieu of conventional medication. For over a decade, Cousins dedicated himself to finding evidence that a positive mindset actually stimulates biochemical agents which combat disease.
OK.
I've been applying dish soap to a series of jellyfish stings (long story...don't ask) all week, sincerely, earnestly (naively?) believing that Palmolive would speed the healing process. Have 75% of my bites disappeared? No.
Nematocyst-laden ocean bastard: 1
Me: 0
To what extent are our lives self-fulfilling prophecies? If we believe something is true, so much so that it's as good as real in our heads, does that make it true? Conversely, if we do not believe in something, even something we desperately want, where does that leave us?
What if someone could prove that positive beliefs, concepts, and ideas actually manifest themselves in physical reality? Well...
All nihilists would be dead. Winning the lottery would no longer be a stroke of luck, but a great personal achievement. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter would just be "Butter."
Everything that happened to you would be YOUR fault. This is mostly true anyway, but we're talking about a whole new level of accountability. There would be no more auspicious coincidences, only triumphs of the mind. People could be all,"Hey, way to not die in that hurricane," and you could rightly feel proud of yourself. After all, YOU did it...you weren't fortunate...you just had to believe.
There would be slip-ups. For instance, if I said, "I can't BELIEVE how hot that girl is," the consequences could be dire. Through my disbelief in her hotness, I would actually make her less hot. Doh.
Life would progress exactly as you see fit, exactly as you believe it would. There would no longer be victims of social injustice, only people without the cognitive persistence to will their way out of situations. There would be no victims of illness, just weak-minded individuals who allow disease to consume them...
"You got cancer? Weak, dude. Way to suck."
Death would be a collapse of the mind, rather than of the body.
Perhaps - eventually- everyone would learn to believe, and there would be no shocking misfortune. Sounds nice, I suppose.
But there would also be no pleasant surprises, no happy accidents. Man would never long for something he couldn't have, but he'd never receive something he always wanted.
For some people, I think the idea that they somehow control and guide every minute aspect of their lives is empowering. Aight. But an idyllic paradise, it ain't.
Sure, some days we wake up expecting, even believing in, something, and we get nothing. And it sucks.
But other days, we expect nothing and get something, and I'm not sure anything in the world feels better than that.
OK.
I've been applying dish soap to a series of jellyfish stings (long story...don't ask) all week, sincerely, earnestly (naively?) believing that Palmolive would speed the healing process. Have 75% of my bites disappeared? No.
Nematocyst-laden ocean bastard: 1
Me: 0
To what extent are our lives self-fulfilling prophecies? If we believe something is true, so much so that it's as good as real in our heads, does that make it true? Conversely, if we do not believe in something, even something we desperately want, where does that leave us?
What if someone could prove that positive beliefs, concepts, and ideas actually manifest themselves in physical reality? Well...
All nihilists would be dead. Winning the lottery would no longer be a stroke of luck, but a great personal achievement. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter would just be "Butter."
Everything that happened to you would be YOUR fault. This is mostly true anyway, but we're talking about a whole new level of accountability. There would be no more auspicious coincidences, only triumphs of the mind. People could be all,"Hey, way to not die in that hurricane," and you could rightly feel proud of yourself. After all, YOU did it...you weren't fortunate...you just had to believe.
There would be slip-ups. For instance, if I said, "I can't BELIEVE how hot that girl is," the consequences could be dire. Through my disbelief in her hotness, I would actually make her less hot. Doh.
Life would progress exactly as you see fit, exactly as you believe it would. There would no longer be victims of social injustice, only people without the cognitive persistence to will their way out of situations. There would be no victims of illness, just weak-minded individuals who allow disease to consume them...
"You got cancer? Weak, dude. Way to suck."
Death would be a collapse of the mind, rather than of the body.
Perhaps - eventually- everyone would learn to believe, and there would be no shocking misfortune. Sounds nice, I suppose.
But there would also be no pleasant surprises, no happy accidents. Man would never long for something he couldn't have, but he'd never receive something he always wanted.
For some people, I think the idea that they somehow control and guide every minute aspect of their lives is empowering. Aight. But an idyllic paradise, it ain't.
Sure, some days we wake up expecting, even believing in, something, and we get nothing. And it sucks.
But other days, we expect nothing and get something, and I'm not sure anything in the world feels better than that.
posted by Pj at 9:55 PM
3 Comments:
I REALLY think Wilma is headed this way and is dangerous. Will being prepared stop people from being hurt, PROBABLY not. Just the "belief," or positive outlook if you will, that many people are REALLY prepared will not stop them from being hurt (like you basically summed up) due to circumstances beyond their control! {Sorry to hear 'bout the jellyfish, owwww}
If that makes me a more of a realist than anything, so be it. What do you think Cousins would say?
Hey PJ.....they are only little jelly fish stings!!!! just kidding, how are you healing? it was great hanging with you on the mighty cape.....by the way...that new cd of yours rocks.....awesome job...I have heard songs on fm96 twice this week! take it easy
Jason.
>>What do you think Cousins would say? <<
Difficult to say, since I took his ideas and expanded them considerably in order to posit an alternate reality. Positive beliefs are, by and large, pretty good to have, but it seems to me that there are always, as you put it, "circumstances beyond your control." I think I actually like things that way.
Many years ago, I fell from the third story of a house (incidentally, in the very same place I stung by the jellyfish). To give you an idea of how high I was, I actually had time, in the air, to THINK about how I was going to land. I didn't do that, of course; I just screamed bloody murder the whole way down, thinking only about how badly I would undoubtedly be hurt. I didn't believe for a second that I could avoid horrible injury; it seemed inevitable. When I landed, it was indescribably jarring; I actually bounced back up slightly.
I laid there for almost 10 seconds, unable to breathe. People came over from other houses screaming "jesus, get an ambulance!" and the like.
Turned out I merely had the wind knocked out of me. I got up and walked away. Well, OK...I got up and limped the hell away. But I was fine, and I earnestly BELIEVED that I might die. Inexplicably, I emerged more or less unscathed.
Really, my only motive for this blog (aside from my usual inclination to pontificate about nothing in particular) was to show not only that there are "circumstances beyond our control," but that the existence of said circumstances isn't necessarily such a bad thing.
Hope the storm didn't hit you too badly.
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