Tag Archives: mindset

Moving from Blind Belief to Wisdom

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By George A. Boyd © 2021

Q: What locks people into blind faith? How do they move out of this mindset into a more realistic perspective?

A: You have to first understand how people come to believe in fantasy and conspiracy theories.

Reality is based on facts and evidence.

Facts are objects that can be weighed and measured. These are verified events for which there is a record.

Evidence is a statement or documentation that truthfully and accurately attests to facts and events.

Conjecture extrapolates from facts and evidence to explore inference and speculation.

Inference examines what can be reasonably deduced after examining evidence.

Speculation examines what if scenarios, and imagines possible outcomes that might occur if certain actions took place, or alternate explanations for the evidence that is presented. [When speculation becomes untethered from reality, it moves over the threshold into fantasy.]

Fantasy steps outside evidence, and asks you to believe what you are told without examining or questioning it. Fantasy appears as allegation and innuendo.

Allegation is based on what you heard, read, or watched on visual media from someone you believe is a convincing or trustworthy source, but there is no verifiable evidence to substantiate it. [Many conspiracy theories operate at this level; blind faith is also anchored at this level.]

Innuendo imputes evil intentions and clandestine illegal or corrupt behavior to others, often citing spurious or uncorroborated sources.

Manipulation is based on a purposeful intention to distort and deceive. At this level, someone is disseminating false information with an aim to spread allegations and innuendo to defeat an opponent or competitor; or to convince others of the superiority of their candidate, product or service. [Unfortunately, many political communications utilize manipulation to help their candidate to win, as do companies that seek to keep a dangerous or toxic product on the market.]

It appears that those that embrace blind faith believe allegation and innuendo. They are motivated to believe these things because it taps into their desires, fears, and anger. Those who are afraid… those who are made to feel outrage… those that are desperate to achieve their desires… alas, can be easily manipulated.

Q: How do people get out of this blind faith mindset?

A: This appears to be a process of discovering flaws with the beliefs they hold, searching for the truth, and discovering wisdom. There appears to be seven major steps in rising above blind belief:

Blind Belief Phase

  1. Blind faith believes without questioning because you trust the source of the information you believe.
  2. Dawning of first awareness occurs when you believe what you hear, read, or view, but you note that some aspects of the message don’t make sense. At first, you ignore these doubts, hoping there will be an explanation of the discrepancy at a later time or as you learn more.

Quest for the Truth Phase

  1. Questioning arises when there are a sufficient number of discrepancies to warrant re-examining your belief. You begin to question the facts of the message and scrutinize your doubts.
  2. Research studies the sources of the information that are presented, and checks each one to see if it is verifiable and accurate.

Wisdom Phase

  1. The step of Implications surface when you look at what might happen if the contentions of the source of your belief actually played out in reality, and whether the predications or expectations of this belief have come true. [Wild speculation and allegations have a way of not coming to pass.]
  2. The step of Intention considers what impression the communicator is trying to make, and how he or she is trying to influence your beliefs and values.
  3. The step of Motivation inquires why the speaker is attempting to make these impressions and to impact your beliefs and values—what he or she is getting from communicating this message. [This is the level you discover whether the source of the communication is attempting to manipulate you.]

Because people who hold the same beliefs surround those who are locked into a blind faith mindset, there is nothing to spark questioning of the belief—so they simply remain in that mindset, and the light of wisdom never illumines the truth. Moreover, those that attempt to point out the falsity of their beliefs are regarded as emissaries of evil, sent to dissuade them of their truth—as those who might attempt to change their belief have been painted with the dark brush of innuendo.

So it is not easy to for people to break out of the perceptual filter of blind belief, but it is possible. If you understand the steps of how you can become locked into blind faith perspectives and study the beliefs that hold them in place, you can dismantle them and get free of their hypnotic thrall.

Those of you who have had your rationality and your life taken over by involvement in a religious or political cult may find that our Cult Recovery Coaching Program will help you find your way out of this manipulative programming and reclaim your own life, and independent thinking and choosing again. We stand ready to support you regain your freedom again.

Going Off the Deep End into Cultism

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By George A. Boyd © 2019

Q: You include several techniques for working on the personality in your intermediate meditation courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. How can I be sure I’m not fundamentally altering my personality, like what happens in cults?

A: We can characterize seven major levels of work on the personality, together with the methods that are used to access each layer. These are briefly described below.

  1. Your actual experience – this is your moment-to-moment experience in the present time—what we call the zone of the Conscious mind. Mindfulness, being present and observing your mental activity objectively, taps this level. The deeper form of mindfulness, Vipassana, in which you actively process and release the material arising in the present time, also operates at this level.
  2. Your story about your experience – this is your ego’s attempt to show itself to others in a favorable and positive light. At this level, you seek to appear logical, right, and acceptable in the eyes of others; you may present yourself to them as successful, competent, and expert, even though you are not. This is the layer in which you encounter your defense mechanisms. Psychodynamic therapies interface with your ego at this level, accessing both your owned personal narrative and your disowned “shadow.”
  3. Your emotional reactions – This includes your emotional “conclusions” about what your experience means. This influences your self-image. This layer is the emotional truth that you feel beneath the false impressions you convey to the world through shaping your appearance, what you disclose to others, and what you tell others about yourself. Humanistic therapies tap this level.
  4. The network of beliefs associated with your emotions – This makes up your essential “programming” that colors your mindset. This is the perceptual set through which you view the world and what seems possible to you. You can change this programming through autohypnosis and affirmation. Cognitive behavioral therapy works with the limiting, self-sabotaging, and misery-creating beliefs you harbor at this level, and attempts to reconstruct them. As you uproot this conditioning that separates you from your Soul, you can begin to align your personality with your authentic Self and connect with your Soul’s creative expression and purpose.
  5. Changing selected beliefs to conform to a doctrine or philosophy – Cults and mind-control groups use this method to control your personality and to make it obey a set of moral or ideological principles. This might take the form of living up to ideal behavioral standards, obeying the commands of the group leader, or conforming every aspect of your life to a prescribed lifestyle. You may be indoctrinated to hold beliefs acceptable to the doctrine of the group. You may be “brainwashed” to re-identify with a new sense of personal identity. You may be manipulated to give up your personal life entirely and live only to carry out the leader’s agenda and the group’s mission.
  6. Spiritual detachment – At this level, you enter an altered state of consciousness in which you re-identify with a spiritual essence—nucleus of identity, spirit, or ensouling entity—and regard your personality as unreal or dream-like. Here, you detach from your life entirely and pursue spiritual development. In some groups, receiving a new spiritual name, taking monastic vows, or abandoning personal ambitions and dedicating your life to spiritual practice accompany this new state of identification.
  7. Dissolution of your personality – In some spiritual traditions, you may be trained in practices that actually turn off the personality and interfere with its ability to function. The aim of these practices is to dissolve the ego and personality so that you ultimately realize your Oneness with the Divine.

Cults co-opt many of the methods used at layers one through four—such as focusing on issues, hypnosis, affirmation, and shaping beliefs—to establish you in a new state of identity. They indoctrinate you in their belief systems and philosophy with an aim to control you. They may have you remain in a trance-like altered state of consciousness to have you separate and disidentify with your personality.

In Mudrashram®, we teach methods in our intermediate meditation courses to allow you to interface with levels one, two, and four. We show you these methods to enable you to connect with your authentic Self and your Soul, to express and actualize your unique gifts.

Once you adopt modalities that move you into zones five through seven, you enter the territory where you begin artificially controlling the personality to follow another’s agenda. This occurs in cults and spiritual groups where you learn your personality is flawed, evil, or an illusion; you are urged to conform to an ideal lifestyle or live in an altered state of consciousness.

If you steer clear of shaping your personality according to religious doctrines and other people’s values, you will avoid going off the deep end into cultism and fanaticism. Honor what is actually within you and work with this. If you complete this inner process, your personality will become an instrument of your own Soul—not a slave to someone else who controls you.

If you are exiting a cultic group and you are trying to make sense of what happened to you—and you want a structured way to approach this—you may wish to consider signing up for our Cult Recovery Program.