THE POWER OF BELIEF

One doctor referred a patient to him after all other efforts to relieve her pain had failed.  She’d had gallbladder surgery, and that surgery went fine, but she had severe post-surgical pain that persisted LONG after she was otherwise healed.  The doctors and psychologists could find neither cause nor cure.  Dave decided to regress her back to just before the pain started and accidentally (or so he thought) regressed her all the way back to the operating room.  There she described hearing the doctor talking about her after she was under general anesthesia, and hearing the doctor say that she “would never be the same again.”  Sure enough, she was NOT the same.  She had chronic pain at the site of the surgery. 

As soon as she recognized the moment when she made the decision that she would not be okay after the surgery, her pain disappeared like magic.  But Dave was curious and contacted her doctor to ask if he remembered making that comment.  Indeed, he did.  He had meant that his patient would be BETTER as the surgery would relieve the pain of her gall stones.  But she had interpreted it to mean that she would be worse. 

Under general anesthesia. 

She heard what he said, made a decision about what it meant, and acted on a decision that she made while under general anesthesia.  We call it being unconscious.  But we forget that the unconscious never sleeps.  It hears everything.  And it’s EASILY influenced. 

Dave Elman spent a lot of time instructing doctors to be careful what they said in the patient’s presence after that.  

Many of us hold similar limiting beliefs in our unconscious minds, often handed down by perfectly well-meaning adults, and usually prior to age 7.  Sometimes they are simple misunderstandings.  Sometimes they are the words of exasperated teachers or parents.  Sometimes they are just statements of opinion that we hold to be factual.  And sometimes they are deliberate cruelties.  But no matter how they got there, they are playing in the background and we are still listening.  Decades after the original statement, we are still listening. 

Whatever we say to ourselves, we are listening.

Limiting beliefs and decisions play in our heads like an endless tape loop, interfering in every area of our lives.  Our finances, relationships, and even physical health are often determined by one nagging belief that prevents us from overcoming an unwanted condition.  If I believe that I need to watch my weight, I will watch it every day for the rest of my life, and I will very likely watch it go up.  If I don’t know how to get rid of that belief, I will be forced to provide some evidence for it.  No matter how rigorously I watch that weight, the odds are excellent that every time I force a few pounds off, I’ll put them right back on with a few extra for insurance.  Hey, nobody likes to be wrong. 

We all know the stories of jackpot lottery winners who lost their entire fortunes within a matter of a few years, often ending in bankruptcy.  And why?  Because those people held limiting beliefs about money.  There are hundreds of negative beliefs that MOST people hold about money.  If you walk around believing that your luck is bad, that money is the root of all evil, that rich people are mean, or even that there’s just never enough, you will prove it to yourself no matter how much you win.  You will find a way to lose it.  It may take a couple of years, but you are resourceful.  You’ll figure it out. 

Listen, if you win the lottery, come see us before you collect it.  We’ll help you remove any horrible ideas you have about money before you start acting on them.