By: Shantanu Das Sharma, Sr. Associate Editor-ICN Group
Quick recap of what we have covered in Part 11
Our Beliefs: The Tap to Our Personal Power Potential
Recognize The Pygmalion Effect
KOLKATA: You will recognize that not only do our beliefs affect our performance and results, but they also affect the people we interact with as well. As a boss, teacher or parent, the beliefs you have about your employees, students and children will affect how you treat them, how they respond, and ultimately how they perform. Have you ever heard of the Pygmalion effect? This psychological phenomenon was first presented by Robert Merton, a professor of Sociology at Columbia University in 1957. It is about how our expectations of other people can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The study involved a teacher who was instructed to teach a new class of gifted students for the next school year. What she did not know was that these students had been tested and found to be of low IQ. Moreover, they had behavioral problems. Sure enough, when she started teaching, the students started misbehaving and did not learn or respond. But because she believed they were high IQ students, she figured that they were not the ones who had the problem, but she. She started to take responsibility for their misbehavior and disinterest in learning. Maybe her teaching style was too boring and not stimulating enough to capture the attention of these gifted, demanding children. So she started to experiment and change the way she taught. She started to encourage them, arouse their curiosity, challenge them with games and activities and really nurtured them. The more she treated them like gifted students, the more they responded. At the end of the school year, the academic grades of the students jumped tremendously. And when retested, their IQs measured a 20-30 point increase on average. She literally created gifted students! (Think how many supposed slow learners or ‘normal’ stream children are languishing simply because of uninspiring teachers brewed with negating presuppositions?)
In his work called ‘Social Theory and Social Structure’, Merton said the phenomenon occurs when “a false definition of the situation evokes a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true.” In other words, once an expectation is set, even if it isn’t accurate, we tend to act in ways that are consistent with that expectation. Surprisingly often, the result is that the expectation, as if by magic, comes true.
Placebo Effect – Even Your Bio Chemistry Can Be Affected By Your Beliefs
This far we have talked about how our beliefs affect our perceptions, decisions and hence our actions. In reality, your beliefs are so powerful that they can literally affect your biochemistry. Yes, your beliefs can affect the state of your energy levels and your physical wellbeing. Have you heard of the placebo effect? In the 1950s, doctors wanted to investigate if a patient’s belief in a drug actually made a difference to whether or not the drug was effective in bringing about a cure. In one experiment, they gave patients pills which were nothing more than sugar in capsules. They then told the patients that the medicine would be effective in curing their flu and headaches. To their surprise, the sugar pills brought about almost the same level of relief as compared to the actual drugs!
The placebo studies showed that our beliefs can literally activate the chemicals in our body to bring about a cure. A later study showed that beliefs can even override the effects of chemicals present in your body. In this experiment, 100 medical students were divided into two groups. The first group was given a red pill and told that it was a stimulant. In actual fact, the pill contained a barbiturate (a depressant).
The second group was given a blue pill and told that it was a depressant. It actually contained a strong stimulant. The results were startling. In 50% of the students who took the pills, their bodies reacted according to their beliefs about what the drugs would do.
Students who took the red pill reported that they felt extremely alert and energetic, despite having actual depressive drugs in their body. Students who took the blue pill reported feeling drowsy even though they had actually taken a stimulant. Why was this possible? A new branch of cognitive neuropsychology called expectancy theory has found that every thought, belief and desire can act as an agent of change in our cells, tissues and organs.
In fact, do you know that every drug that is developed today has to go through a double-blind placebo test before it is approved by the American FDA (Federal drug Administration)? The reason for this is that if even fake drugs can bring about a cure (dependent on the patient’s belief), the only way to be sure that a drug is medically effective is that it can produce a better recovery rate than a placebo. What is amazing is that in order for a drug to be proven medically effective, it has to beat a placebo by just a few percentage points.
How Belief Alone Can Cure Cancer
Doctors now know that the growth of some cancers can be controlled by a person’s immune system. If you can improve the immune system, you can cure the cancer. (Again it goes back to taking responsibility, taking charge: because no doctor can strengthen your immune system, only YOU can – with the appropriate thoughts, appropriate foods, and appropriate moves). So, starting with the belief in a cure, the cancer patient can activate his or her immune system to mobilize the vascular (blood) system with such efficiency that toxic fluids and waste products, that keep feeding the cancer, are flushed out. Many similar cases have been reported in the area of spontaneous recovery because of an empowering belief system.
The Human Mind Cannot Tell the Difference Between a Real and a Vividly Imagined Experience
One of the brilliant techniques that Morris Goodman and Dr. Ian Gawler used to crystallize their beliefs and aid their spontaneous recovery was through the use of creative visualization. Goodman, for example, kept visualizing himself in the future, fully recovered and walking around with no mechanical aid. He kept visualizing himself having total control over his reflexes and bodily movements. But can seeing pictures in our mind actually affect our physiological responses? Absolutely! In fact, medical science has now shown that the human mind cannot tell the difference between actual experience and what is vividly imagined. Whether you physically see, hear, touch or taste something or you vividly imagine it, the same neurological impulses are activated within our nervous system.
Where is the Lemon?
Would you like to do an experiment? First I want you to read the following passage, then follow the instructions and create the visual images in your mind. Alternatively, you could get someone to read it for you as you go through this visualization exercise. Are you ready?
I want to you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in your kitchen in front of your refrigerator. In your mind’s eye, see yourself opening the door of the refrigerator. Inside you see a big, yellow sour lemon. Imagine yourself reaching out and holding the lemon in your hand. Notice the weight, coldness and texture of the lemon. Now, bring the lemon to your kitchen table and with a sharp knife slice off a piece. See the lemon juice oozing out all over. Now, take the piece of sour lemon and pop it into your mouth and chew on it, feel the sour sensation on your tongue and around your mouth, and your nostrils puckering as the tangy scent is released. Now open your eyes.
Let me ask you this question. Do you have more saliva in your mouth? Did you actually feel that sour sensation? If you visualized vividly enough, I bet you even cringed your facial muscles as you ‘chewed the lemon.’ The interesting thing is that the lemon was merely in your own imagination. When you visualized the sour fruit, your brain sent the same neurological impulses to your salivary glands as if you had physically eaten it, which produced more saliva to begin the digestive process.
This is Exactly How Some People Frighten Themselves to Death
When they start to imagine that they are being attacked or are in grave danger, their brains fire off so much fear that their heart beats faster, their blood pressure increases and they eventually die of a heart attack. In certain ancient cultures like the aboriginals of Australia and the Haitians in the Caribbean, there is a strong belief in black magic and Voodoo. Their witchdoctors can point an ‘evil bone’ at a person, for some tribal misdemeanor and, within a few weeks, that healthy person will actually start to sicken and die from the ‘curse’. Why? Because they convince themselves so utterly, just through the power of their imagination, that they will die, their brains actually send signals to their bodies to shut down their immune system. Eventually, they succumb and die.
In Australia such ‘cursed’ aboriginals have been brought to the hospitals but baffled doctors can’t find anything physically wrong, yet the victim of the curse will wither away and die. Such is the power of our beliefs.
Mind Rehearsal for Excellence… the Russian Athlete’s “Secret Weapon”
Many people have made use of the power of visualization to help them to perform at their peak. This is especially so in the area of competitive sports where this technique is known as ‘mental rehearsal’. For many years, the Russians had always won and dominated the gymnastics event in the Olympic games. The Americans trained just as hard and could not understand how the Russians were always able to perform at near perfection. It was much later that the Americans found out that the Russians had used sports psychologists to teach their athletes to train mentally as well as physically.
Besides physically practicing, the Russian’s secret was spending a few hours a day to visualize themselves doing the perfect jumps, twists and landings. It was this practice that allowed them to tune their performances to near perfection! Today, all top athletes use the power of visualization to perform at their peak. In his book, Tiger Woods talks about how he visualizes himself hitting the perfect ball and watching it land, even before he actually swings his club.
Physical Versus Mental Training
There was an experiment done on how mental training compares with actual physical training. A group of men were divided randomly into three basketball teams. They were asked to shoot from the free throw line and their scores were recorded. For the next three weeks, each team went through a different training routine. The first team physically trained for four hours. The second team did not physically shoot any hoops but imagined themselves shooting perfect shots for two hours a day.
The third team was the control group so they were asked not to train at all. After three weeks, they were retested and their scores recorded. The first team that trained physically scored an average improvement of 30%. The second team that trained mentally also scored an average improvement of 30%. The third team showed no signs of improvement at all. The experiment showed that mental training is amazingly as effective as actual physical practice. If you were to combine both, your performance would truly be astounding.
So how can you use the power of visualization to program your mind to perform at its peak? You can use it in virtually any area of your life. I have personally used this technique before I give a talk. I have used visualization for speech-making, for negotiation meetings and even to pass my interviews! – and believe me, it works every time.
Before I go on stage, I would visualize myself going up, seeing the audience in front of me and seeing myself delivering a power packed talk. I would then see the audience responding and giving me resounding applause. I keep playing these images in my head over and over again. Eventually, by the time I actually step up on stage, I feel totally relaxed and confident… because it is as if I had done it so many times before.
Before Reaching Your Outcome, First See the Reaching in Your Mind
Do you want to experience another demonstration of how you can visualize yourself to break through supposed physical limitations? What I want you to do is to stand up and place your feet shoulder-width apart. Throughout this experiment, you must keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Now, I want you to warm up by stretching and loosening up your waist muscles. Swing your body gently from side to side. Great! Are you ready?
Now, point your finger forward and turn your body clockwise as far as your body will allow you to turn. Once you reach the maximum point, remember the spot you have reached and turn back to neutral position. Next, I want you to close your eyes and visualize yourself turning your body clockwise and seeing in your mind’s eye that your finger is able to move past the maximum point and go another three feet further. Once you have visualized this, open your eyes and physically turn your finger and your body again. Did you go further this time?
Most people go a lot further and are amazed at how this short visualization exercise got them to go beyond their ‘mental limits’. Think of what other supposed limits you can move beyond with enough belief and mental rehearsals.
(I facilitate Thought Leaders, Change Makers; Professionals & Business Owners translate NLP concepts into actions to achieve and elicit personal excellence. I conduct NLP Lifestyle Coaching Certification programs for individuals, corporate and celebrity clients. We will finally conclude with the ‘Power of Our Beliefs’ in the next article and after that you will come to know in subsequent articles, how you can utilise concepts of NLP+ in all walks of your life to replicate the success blueprint of a winner mindset to win through life. So, stay tuned every Monday & Saturday and fasten your seat belt to ‘Enhance Your Lifestyle With NLP+’)
My #1 Amazon Best Selling book ‘Awaken The Incredible Within – Incredible Is The New Giant’ is available at Amazon in English at http://bit.ly/Awaken-The-Incredible-Within
Shantanu Das Sharma, Creator of the concept NLP Lifestyle Coaching with NLP+, Founder of Neuromind Leadership Academy is an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, NLP Lifestyle Master Trainer & Coach, Clean Language Facilitator & Strategic Interventionist.
