“The Spontaneous Healing of Belief”

Imagination is everything.  It is a preview of life’s coming attractions.
-Einstein

Today I’m going to recommend a thought provoking book to start off the New Year: The Spontaneous Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden.  

I’m going to use this post to lay out some key thoughts, or Belief Codes, that Braden details in his book.  These codes make you think about how we are interacting – and creating – our reality. In a time where fear often runs rampant, it’s so important to remember to keep our emotions and vision of what we want for our lives in the forefront.

The core concept of the book is 31 Belief Codes, and how these core beliefs can explain the reality we live in.  Braden describes reality similar to a computer system – where energy (our thoughts and beliefs are energy), emotions, and actions create (or code) the reality we live in.  Braden states, “We tend to experience in life what we tend to identify with in our beliefs.”

I won’t go deep into the details of scientific studies he outlines, but do know that everything in the book is relatable and easily explained.

I loved when Braden discussed the Placebo effect, as I’ve always found this to be fascinating.  He outlines a study performed in Italy in 2014 analyzing brain scans and neuron levels, and how the Placebo Effect effects healing.  Again, I won’t go into details, but the results (consistent with several other studies) show that the Placebo Effect is in fact a real and measurable form of healing.  If a person truly believes they will get better from an illness, even from a “placebo” treatment, the body will often follow and heal.  For instance, studies have shown that a person is 4x as likely to die of heart disease if they think they will (when compared to those with the same family history who believe they will not).  This relates to belief code #11: What we believe to be true in life may be more powerful than what others accept as truth.

On the flip side, what about the Nocebo Effect?  That negative beliefs can actually hurt us?  A group of people living in NY after the tragedy of 9/11 were studied over a number of years.  The study found that after living in a state of heightened alertness and the vague warning of a “constant threat,” caused by the events of 9/11, the group ended up years later with a higher incidence of anxiety and fear.  By living with the stress of a fight or flight mindset (to a real or unreal threat), our bodies react AS IF the threat is real.  Although the perceived danger never came to fruition, the Nocebo effect was powerful enough to create anxiety from their beliefs alone.  How true is the Nocebo effect in our country right now?  I think many people are walking around with a vague sense of anxiety about some “possible” danger – that will likely never manifest – yet the anxiety is there due to media, family history, unprocessed emotions – the powerful beliefs encoded in our energy field.

So where do our beliefs come from?  Largely our subconscious mind.  Braden states in Belief Codes 16 and 17:
-The subconscious mind is larger and faster than the conscious mind and can account for as much as 90% of our activity each day. (such as breathing, or automatically stopping at a red light, etc)

-Many of our most deeply held beliefs are subconscious and begin when our brain state allows us to absorb the ideas of others before the age of 7.

Did you know that the subconscious mind acts 500,000 times faster than the conscious mind?  I find it fascinating – and somewhat shocking – how easily we run our lives on auto-pilot.  Braden states, “if we are always using this (the subconscious mind) we are living on our beliefs of what others tell us”.
Why what others tell us?  Because as stated above, the vast majority of our beliefs are formed in the brain by the age of 7.  Seven!  And these beliefs, that we learn and absorb in childhood, are then mirrored back to us in our work, relationships, and everyday life.  This really makes me consciously think every day about what beliefs I am passing on to my kids!

So how do we know our beliefs if they are largely unconscious and automatic in every day life?  They become apparent during challenges in our life.  How do you react in challenging times?  It’s when these deeply held beliefs rise to the surface that healing in the present moment can truly happen.  (look at all the unconscious beliefs rising up daily through challenging times in our world)

This leads to healing.  Yet how can one change the very beliefs rooted deeply and unconsciously inside themselves?  By focusing on your heart/brain connection.  Our heart is at the center of our electromagnetic field.  It emanates a powerful and dynamic energy.  Braden states that our heart energy field is measured up to 8 ft. outside of our body.  And the reason it’s not measured further is because of the limitation in the measuring equipment scientists use.  Scientists believe the heart field is likely to be able to be detected and measured miles outside of our physical body.  What a powerful visual to have.  Think of how our true and pure energy in our hearts (where the soul resides) could shape our reality if we live a heart-based existence.

So by focusing in our heart on what we truly want to manifest, feel, and experience in life – think of how this emanating energy then ripples out and effects your reality.  And how in fact our reality is really a dream we are creating through the collective unconscious.  This is a vast subject I love to talk about – but I’ll move on to the final part of the book that I want to discuss.

I loved this question that Braden asks of his readers:

Do you believe that there is one source for everything that happens in life?

Or two forces – one that likes you, and one that does not?

What a dynamic and important question to ask ourselves.

He goes on to explain that, if you believe there are two separate forces, you will always see separation in life.  This feeling of separation will dominate your work, relationships, and health.  If you believe there are two opposing forces (good vs. evil) then the world looks like a battleground and life is the battle.  It will play out everywhere.

He states in belief code #23: “To heal the ancient battle, and our beliefs about darkness and light, we may find that it’s less about defeating one or the other, and more about choosing our relationship to both.”

I see the world as one large, fluid, interactive reality, in which we are all connected.  We are all light.  Some people may have their light turned up full blast, while others are dimmed down.  But the light is still there – because it cannot not be.  We are all breathing in and out the same Universal Life Energy.  So why do we create separateness from one another?  Well it all goes back to our unconscious beliefs.  Fear.  Anxiety of some “unknown” danger.  Yet what is the danger?  If we are creating our reality, as quantum physics proves, then our very thoughts can be our worst enemy.

Braden discusses this in much more detail, but the takeaway I’ll leave for this post is Belief Code #27: The prime rule of reality is that we must become in our lives what we choose to experience in our world.

Let’s not be afraid to look at unconscious beliefs that bubble up when life gets hard.
It’s playing out in the headlines every day.  Yet this doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.  It is through waking up to the realization that nothing is out to get us – we are all one – and that in truth our actual reality isn’t here on Earth.  We are in fact so much larger than this “blink of an eye” experience we have on Earth.  This is a type of dream we are creating every day from our higher selves.

If this doesn’t ring true for you that’s ok too. But I do believe that if each of us took the small step to consciously become aware of how our inner thoughts are mirroring our reality – we would all start to notice the patterns.  And it’s when these patterns arise in our life that we are allowed to create a new, heart-based, outcome.  A new reality.  And this is where true healing – and peace – can occur.

I hope you read – or listen – to the book!

In gratitude,
Nicki