Cleanse your mind of these thoughts

There are many thoughts that are unnecessary and just take up space in our brains, space that could be better utilized for productive positive thoughts, dealing with everyday problems, planning for the future, and contemplating all the past good memories.  It wasn’t until I read the wonderful book by Thomas Kida, Don’t believe everything you think: The 6 basic mistakes we make in thinking (Prometheus Books, 2006), and a book by Damian Thompson called Counterknowledge (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), that I began thinking about this topic.   

I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to Kida and Thompson for these thoughts and for their support.  I have borrowed heavily from these books, and I have avoided quotation marks for ease of reading—but, be clear about this, these are their thoughts, not mine. 

The first big time waster is any beliefs you may have in fortunetellers, palm readers, and astrologers.  The last “big name” to give credence to astrology, of course, was Nancy Reagan, who consulted an astrologist whenever deciding President Reagan’s schedule.  Beliefs in any of these is pure nonsense. 

One trap that we fall into is believing in stories rather than in statistics.  I am continually telling people that when you hear of an accident, shooting, robbery, baby’s death, or any other extraordinary event, there often follows a law, ruling, or mandate  designed specifically to prevent other similar accidents, shootings, robberies, or deaths.  So, you have one incident that makes the news—an anecdote—and people scurry to prevent other similar instances when, often, these examples are rare, exceptional, or unique.  A teenager holds up a small grocery store, and suddenly you have a curfew in the neighborhood designed to keep teenagers at home after dark.  Another good example is when you hear of a recall of a certain model because of problems incurred by a small number of people, and you avoid purchasing any car made by that company. 

The second area where we can cleanse our mind is in any intention we may have regarding talking with the dead, facilitated communication, therapeutic touch, and dowsing (a technique in which an individual holds an object, like a Y-shaped tree branch and walks around the land in search of water.  When the branch twitches, it’s taken as a sign that water is below.)  A belief in any of these is ludicrous as well, and yet bright, capable, highly trained people hold extraordinary beliefs such as these that have little or no credible supporting evidence. 

A third area where a significant number of people believe in something where there is little or no credible evidence to support their beliefs, and the beliefs are contradicted by hard evidence, is that there is such a thing as extrasensory perception, that houses can be haunted, that people are sometimes possessed by the devil, that there is such a thing as telepathy—or communication between minds without the five senses—that extraterrestrial beings have visited the earth, that there is such a thing as clairvoyance—or perceiving things not present to the senses—and that reincarnation exists. 

Another area where you can cleanse your mind is any beliefs you have in graphology— analyzing a person’s handwriting to determine what kind of person he or she is.  Research shows that graphology is totally useless, but you may have been denied a job if a graphologist said your handwriting indicated you are untrustworthy. 

A fourth area where cleansing can take place is support of a large number of commonly held beliefs.  For example, that humans use only 10 percent of their brains, the blind develop supersensitive hearing, crime and drugs are out of control in the United States, low self-esteem is a cause of aggression, religious people are more altruistic than less religious people, opposites attract, or if you’re happy in your job, you will be more productive.  There is no research to support these ideas. 

Also, you can cleanse your mind by removing beliefs you may have in such topics as Atlantis, bigfoot, UFOs, Bible prophecy, psychic powers, religious images or patterns seen in unrelated objects, near-death experiences, miracle diets, creationism, paranormal phenomena, or the existence of ghosts.  Anytime you hear a comment from someone who has witnessed an event —whatever it is—and says, “I knew right away it was a ghost/miracle/fairy/or whatever, because there is no other way to explain it,” you can rest assured that the claim is bogus, and the speaker is naive.  As I said earlier in this essay, we love stories.  A discussion of the contribution the media make in fostering beliefs in the weird and bizarre would offer material for a whole book. 

There are a number of other beliefs, too, that you can discard.  Breast implants cause serious disease.  It isn’t true now, and it never was true.  All anecdotal evidence.  Levitation is not supported by evidence.  Not a single death or serious injury has occurred from kids eating Halloween candy received from strangers.  No poisoned candy or apples containing razor blades.  Classified under pseudoscience is a whole range of activities related to parapsychology (some mentioned previously) such as extrasensory perception, telepathy (reading other’s minds), clairvoyance (perceiving things not present to the senses), and precognition (seeing the future).  None of it exists; none of it is true. 

How can you deal with falsehoods, fabrications, half truths, and lies?  Kida has some suggestions, and they fall under the heading, “Think like a scientist.”  First, keep an open mind, and be skeptical of any unsubstantiated claims.  Second, make sure a claim or belief can be tested.  Third, evaluate the quality of the evidence for a belief.  Fourth, try to falsify a claim or belief (e.g., look for disconfirming evidence).  Fifth, consider alternative explanations (even chance or coincidence).  Sixth, other things being equal, choose the claim or belief that is the simplest explanation for the phenomenon.  Seventh, choose the claim or belief that doesn’t conflict with well-established knowledge.  And, eighth, proportion your belief to the amount of evidence for or against that belief. 

No, there is no way to totally cleanse your mind, of course, and we will always be guilty of holding some false beliefs.  Sometimes it’s just fun to consider ideas you know are clearly false or outrageous.  Sometimes they just make you feel good.  Sometimes, too, you just wonder how in the world someone could believe something like that?  At least you know now that there are about 30 beliefs you never have to think about again.  It’s a start to a cleansed mind! 

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Nick Arizza, a medical doctor, has written a delightful essay entitled, “All your problems are based in false beliefs at ezinearticles.com, in which he discusses all the cleansing that can occur when you are freed of your false beliefs: “a feeling of lightening (i.e. a sense of buoyancy and an inner sense of radiance), feelings of relief, feelings of joy and contentment, feelings of self confidence, self esteem and self confidence, feelings of grounded ness and feelings of being more present in one's physical body than ever before.” Now that’s cleansing!

At trans4mind.com, Peter Shepherd has written an essay on “False beliefs,” in which his main thesis is: “Just recognizing your own particular false beliefs is the first and most important step toward letting go of them, to de-programming yourself. Next you need to re-evaluate your deeply-held belief and see if you'd like to revise it.”  Shepherd offers a number of suggestions for cleansing your mind.

A third essay, this one by Julie Jordan Scott, a Life Purpose coach, writer, and speaker, at the website topachievement.com, in an essay entitled, “Taking Action to Eliminate False Beliefs,” takes a similar tack as the two authors above, and after a number of recommendations for dealing with false beliefs, she concludes: “Choose today to eliminate false thinking from your mind's vocabulary. When you "hear" your thoughts walking that path of inertia, take the power away from them. Say STOP! Replace this false belief with a Truth. Take action on truth. Watch the amazing course that flow unfold before you.” 

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Copyright May, 2010, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC