What Do-U- Believe About 'Believing'? (Never thought about it?)

[sakoz]

Beliefs manifest as experience; across the board. Even if your not aware of the belief; and even if the experience is so mi-nute you need a polygraph to detect it.
We subliminally believe some of our thought-images are real and that belief manifests as the experience of emotional suffering, dysfunctional behavior, stress, etc.
We know that 'belief' is the catalyst in the placebo effect experience, not the innocuous /inert pill.
The Chevreul Pendulum is analogous to the placebo. As you hold the pendulum, you think/imagine it moving in four possibe directions and it does even though you consciously hold the pendulum still.. Now let me remind you, it's not the experience manifested by both placebo and Chevreul pendulum at issue right now but the 'thoughts believed' that cause the experiences.
"Beliefs manifest as experience; across the board", the live long day.  Do you believe that?
Do you think Placebo Effect, Chevreul Pendulum, Ouija Board, Voodoo Hex, are "goofy"? That's my point, "believing goofy thoughts" causes 'goofy' experiences.
If you experience unpleasant emotions, make mistakes, feel stress, then you too do your share of "believing goofy thoughts" in order to experience those "syndromes".

[sakoz]

Frying a egg makes it edible;- what does "believing" do to a thought? You believe many many times a day; what is the effect of 'believing' a thought-image is real?
Don't take my word for it; look at your own experience for a answer. I've been writing about 'believing'; many people don't understand, so let me try a different tact.
Your all 'experts' at 'believing'; surely you can tell me what effects you get from believing some of your thought-images are real?
How do i know your all experts at believing? If your reading this, indicates you know and use language. Language use requires you believe some of what you think/say.
Did you ever see two people argue who did not believe what they were saying?(except when one plays 'devil's advocate).

Perception OF, is often mistakenly believed, Perception IS reality. If you were ever cross-examined in court, you know "Perception is not Reality".
We often ACT like perception IS reality even when we 'know' it's not.

[sakoz]

Do you transcend your conditioning when you want to? We are born with the capacity to do so; have you lost touch? has your conditioning usurped that capacity?
Benjamin Libet et al discovered/recognized that our involuntary initiates a act before we decide to perform it. That's no surprise to me; given our evolutionary history. For eons, all creatures were on instinct, involuntary, conditioned to habit. Consciousness evolved much later; so our involuntary still acts like it's still fully in charge, ( so be it, I wouldn't want it otherwise).
Libet found we have a "window of opportunity";very short; when we can veto or regulate the impending reaction by our conditioning. That too is no surprise to me. Our involuntary continues to act like it's still fully in charge, so it initiates,etc. That is a prerequisite for consciousness, afteral, we can't veto or regulate what does not yet exist. All works as 'designed', it's us who 'messed up"; we 'can' transcend our conditioning, habits, if we 'reclaim' the capacity we were born with. ( Thanks to Libet et al, you don't have to take my word that we can regulate our conditioning, they 'proved' such a capacity exists.)
How far are you from 'Happiness' ?     One thought.

[sakoz]

I'm not trying to add to your belief-system, I'm trying to impact your conditioning, where you experience; I'm not trying to impress anyone. I watch the TV show Jeopardy and am impressed at how much information the contestants have stored in memory. Many of you have degrees, credentials I don't; but when it comes to 'conditioning/believing', i don't take a "back seat" to any of you. I'm trying to use analogies and metphors that will impact you to experience a insight, much like the punch line of a joke.
We have learned, been taught, conditioned to "believe our beliefs are as real as the sensory objects we interact with in our environment". We been conditioned to and to condition ourselves to equate two 'realms' (objective and subjective) some of the effects of doing so are emotional suffering, dysfunctional behavior, mistakes, stress, burn-out, etc. These symptoms/effects are "believed-thought" induced, exactly as Epictetus said; "It's not the facts that disturb us but our thoughts about them."  So solutions are possible by the quality of thoughts.
What does this quote imply to you? "With this realization, he could see...". To me it implies that realization/beliefs are 'thoughts' and they function as/like "internal lens". Interchangeable with a variety of other such 'believed thoughts'. It's as if  we are do-it-yourself "opticians", ( in effect we are if you examine your experiences).
Look at Epictetus statement again; in order to make that statement, his perspective had tobe "other" that the perspective at which reactions to thoughts occur. He was at a "witnessing perspective."
Without a "belief lens", pure seeing; uncontaminated/unpolluted by beliefs.
The "Big Picture" includes the "ego". Do you think "ego perspective" can see the big picture that includes itself? 'Ego' can't see the big picture because it's in it. That's why ego is so often stymied; it trys to do what it can't. There's "something" other than ego that witnesses  the big picture that includes the ego. There's some "big egos", but there is "something" bigger.