You Are What You Believe You Are

“It’s prophetic, really. Today, man’s most advanced inventions are being used to study man’s most ancient ideas. The science of Noetics may be new, but it’s actually the oldest science on earth—the study of human thought.”
— From The Lost Symbol, 498

Katherine and Peter Solomon, in Dan Brown’s novel The Lost Symbol, believe the world is on the cusp of great change because of the knowledge of how the human mind really works—it is not simply an emergent property of the brain, but is an “antenna” of sorts for transmitting and receiving energy and information to and from the universal field of consciousness. As the information in the other sections of the website has shown, their view is not fiction. It is based on real science, on hard evidence that we can affect matter with our thoughts, that our beliefs and thoughts affect our biology and the very condition of our health, and that at the quantum level we are part of the vast web of information and energy that makes up the cosmos. Scientists have become philosophers when they say that the universe is more like a great thought than a great machine. So, where does that leave us? What can you do to harness and use the power of your own beliefs, thoughts, intentions, desires, emotions, and energy? In this section, we will share what scientists have discovered about how best to use intention to manifest what you desire and to change the deepest nature of your life. Your beliefs are at the foundation of how successful you will be in doing so. The changes that are possible are not slight. They can be as grand as you are willing to allow. However, using intention is not magic. It is science. And here is what noetic scientists and other researchers have to say about beliefs and intentions, and how they contribute to creating the world.

What Are Beliefs?

You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat?” What goes into your mouth shapes your body, effecting how it functions and the condition of your health. In the same way, you are what you believe. What goes on in your mind shapes not only your body and health, but to some degree it also influences the very condition of your life and the “reality” of the world. Just as food provides physical nutrition, your thoughts and beliefs provide psychological nutrition.

Your entire worldview arises out of your beliefs. Are you a pessimist or optimist? An extrovert or introvert? What are your fears? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you believe is possible for you? Do you believe you are at the mercy of others’ decisions or do you believe you are the master of your own fate? Do you rely more on logic or emotions? Reason or intuition? When you answer these kinds of questions, you begin to reveal your beliefs. Your beliefs are shaped from earliest childhood, influenced by your parents and extended family, your teachers and other authority figures; your socio-economic situation, cultural heritage, and religious upbringing; by what you watch on television, listen to on the radio or your iPod, read or watch on the Internet, read in books and magazine, hear from advertisers, and more. You may be running belief programs that you don’t even consciously know you have, for your beliefs are thought patterns that are stored in your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious mind is like a computer. It is essentially programmed by you in response to your environment, and it stores exactly what you put into it, without judgment or comment. Unlike your conscious, reasoning mind, your subconscious doesn’t mull things over. It follows the rules you set up for it and faithfully executes the program you installed in it. That’s why so many of us make plans to change—as in our New Year’s resolutions—yet quickly find ourselves back to our old ways. You can say positive affirmations until the cows wander home, but if you don’t truly believe the words you are repeating at the subconscious level, you won’t be able to live them. Yes, you can use will to change. But it is not a reliable way of achieving long-lasting change. Will rests on emotions much of the time, and our emotions tend to shift like the wind. This is the reason why so many people fail when using techniques popularized in books such as The Secret. Their conscious intentions seem clear, but in reality they are working mostly at the emotional level, and their intentions are in conflict with their core subconscious belief programs, and so nothing changes. We often undertake change in our life based on a shift in our emotions, but our emotions are not our beliefs.