Tuesday 29 July 2014

Physiology of belief

Every belief has a portion which can never be logically explained or scientifically proved. To make it easier for the believers, the belief organizes a system of induced preoccupation. It demands every believer to dedicate some of the time for rituals focusing on their belief and keep repeating them. More the number of repetitions more the preoccupation and stronger becomes the belief. A stage comes in the process of this preoccupation when the belief becomes an obsession and then a delusion and the believer starts actually seeing things what he believes in. This is the ultimate aim of every belief and anyone at this stage can do anything for his belief including killing or get killed.

Induced preoccupation is accentuated by synchronized repetition of belief fragments which resonate with and thus amplify the already existing beliefs making the believer actually see what he believes.  That is why believers of any faith see what they believe when in trance while meditating. This seems to be more of a neuronal phenomenon and needs to be scientifically studied to get an objective insight into belief systems. However any metaphysical experience with tangible physical outcome seen by others too would not be explained just by preoccupation-obsession-delusion triad and would require some sort of spiritual deliberation instead of a purely neuronal explanation. One can make an active search for such metaphysical phenomena and subject them to scientific analysis to get to the truth.

The importance of synchronized repetition is quite evident from the fact that this is part of almost every belief system presently known. We don't know if the 'persona' resulting from the induced preoccupation following synchronized repetition of belief fragments survives the physical death of the believer or perishes along with his physical body. There is also a possibility that a strong belief could resonate with other minds and amplify their much weaker beliefs.

With the present little metaphysical knowledge every belief cannot be scientifically proven or rejected. Believing in something, though, seems good for psychological health as it makes life simple, gives hope and provides comfort in times of distress. It also produces an inner sense of security and being looked after helping us to face adverse situations. However many a time it is associated with a varying degree of 'religious exhibitionism' which annoys others and puts them on the back foot because of the apparently embedded message of انا خیر منکم (holier than thou). This 'religious exhibitionism' should be deliberately kept in check to avoid our belief becoming an obsession hampering our ability of logical reasoning. We should also avoid falling for the resultant delusions which might force us to make drastic changes in life at personal level or try imposing our belief on others one way or another.
Of course it's a fine balance and requires a lot of intellectual gimmickry.

1 comment:

  1. Sometimes its only the belief that has kept people alive
    :)
    & no ones' beliefs are better than others'
    Its just different

    ReplyDelete