Beliefs create after thoughts
Breaking down the source of beliefs and how after thoughts are not natural responses but create conflict.
Background
This is the third part to the series on persona which is essentially a cloak on our real identity of being human. The persona is the reason for many internal conflicts. This persona is a collection of thought and habit patterns that have been picked up through past experiences.
In having simplified the human experience, we now understand that it is an interplay between past (memory) and current experiences. There is nothing more to it. Persona is the past meeting the present.
Psychologist, theorist and therapist would have you believe that there is a whole mental construct of an identity that encompasses beliefs which create your reality. And, that we must actively ‘re-program our minds’ to bring about a change in our reality.
A Belief is a ‘fact’ of life that has been understood and accepted to be true (1). So, a belief that needs to be changed is not really a belief then, right? What is one person’s belief based on their experience cannot be another person’s belief. If a belief is based on second-handed experience gained without real experience, how can the source of that knowledge be trusted?
If one was to say that, “I believe that all men are aggressive?” This statement might not be true for everybody.
Source of Beliefs
In understanding the process of thinking, we recognize the role of thought in relation to our direct sensory experience. There is stimuli-based thinking and memory-based thinking, which relies on accumulated knowledge. Thought functions as a response mechanism which also incorporates a sense of feelings.
This accumulated knowledge, or memory, has an associated identity that forms our entire belief system, through which we operate in the world (experience). Just as data stored in computers needs an identifier.
Thus, it is not our beliefs but an autobiographical memory, which integrates past experiences into a coherent narrative. (2)
Memory as Identity
Identity operates through two major knowledge banks that allow us to have experiences:
Self-Preservation Mechanism: The root source is genetic memory. A human is born with genetic memory, enabling simple sensory experiences. During infancy, a sense of ‘separation’ emerges within the organism, forming an identity that helps in a subject-object experience. This identity (persona) is continuously shaped by social interactions, cultural norms, and everyday experiences.
Functional Knowledge: The identity initially engages with family and immediate relationships, then fits into societal roles through a narrative constructed by life events. It accumulates knowledge as memory to understand complex experiences, that can be classified as functional knowledge, such as driving a car, riding a bike, or learning a trade. This also enhances the self-preservation mechanism tied to fear, desire, pain, and pleasure.
Essentially, identity includes self-preservation and functional knowledge. Beliefs, values and principles are just past experiences that have left an impact on this identity.
Identity as an after thought
The identity as a persona, always rooted in the past, meets the present and continuously flows into the future through experiences. Conflict arises between the identity and experience. There isn’t an experiencer and an experience; there is only experience as a “whole” movement.
For example, consider a married man or woman browsing the internet and finding a photo of a person of the opposite gender who seems “attractive”:
First Thought (with feeling and emotion): The stimuli of the appearance in the experience elicits admiration — a natural response to the fact.
After the fact:
Second Thought: “But I am married; I should not be looking at another person” (verbal thinking). “What would my wife or people think of me?” (pictorial thinking)
Third Thought (with feeling and emotion): Judging the response with guilt and shame.
The first thought is natural, but the second thought, functioning through the identity of being “married,” causes conflict within the experience, leading to the third thought of guilt and shame. Although the first thought was completely natural, the second thought created conflict, resulting in an immediate opposing reaction.
Now, consider the same example:
First Thought (with feeling and emotion): The stimuli of the appearance in the experience elicits admiration — natural response to the fact.
And then, there is no afterthought.
The responses (thought) associated with an identity become the persona we wear in our interactions with the environment. This persona hides real intentions. Understanding how this identity functions as a persona can help us see through the masks people wear in everyday interactions.
This persona can dominate or submit to a situation based on desire and fear, used for subjective good or bad intentions. It is through this persona that actions are carried out in the world. Taking responsibility to ensure that the persona aligns with our true intentions will prevent conflict. This results in peace with our expressions and freedom from shame or guilt regarding our experiences.
Reference
1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belief
2. Conway, M. A., & Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107(2), 261–288.
