Proof that belief directly leads to higher intelligence!
Most of you seeing the title of the post, must be thinking that this is about a belief in something, i.e. a faith or God and claiming that it leads to higher intelligence and thinking capabilities. I suppose then, that most of you who cared to clicked the link must be interested in knowing a view on that. I am sorry to let your hopes down, as this post does not say anything about it.
Although that too is true (in a sort of complex way), though highly contentious and esoteric, (most believe that it is actually opposite). But my focus in this write up is entirely far from matters of faith and belief (not technically though). It is about how a belief on an outcome leads our intelligence to deduce the the intermediary steps that should lead to that outcome. And more generally, identifying a concrete visible and universally experienced working of the mind, to take a confident leap from “Positive thinking may matter” to “Positive thinking does matter”.
The new millennia, among many other remarkable things, also saw an upsurge in the confidence in effect of thought patterns on our physical existence. To counter any disagreement on that, consider the number of depression patients who are now going towards various behavioral therapies, e.g. CBT instead of medicines. With new scientific experiments verifying the effect of thoughts on body , e.g. an experiment on athletes who practiced in virtual reality actually showed fatigue; the confidence has risen in intellectuals and academicians as well. We all know about placebo affect and how Homeopathy, a whole area of medicine is based on it. (My mom does gets relief from Homo medicines, despite me once explaining her it’s nothing but Placebo, until I realized that I shouldn’t make her doubt Homo, for the very reason of power of belief)
Even with so many instances and experiments verifying the power of thoughts, we find it hard to belief in it, or at least fail to acknowledge the actual weight of the causal relationship. This is mainly because, unlike the news and experiments and everything that we might hear and see, we fail to identify such occurrence of similar level in our own lives. And for the human mind to believe in anything that counters his experience is a struggle with cognitive dissonance (CD). (a necessary evil)
Despite a strong need to fill the gap of rationals explaining the causal relationship between our subconscious thoughts (beliefs) and the physiological response, I will resort to identifying experiences rather than logic just for the very same reason that humans are not that rational and also the victims of CD. In particular, I hope to make us identify the instances in our life, that in spite being common, did not let us pause to appreciate the power of thoughts.
Specifically for this post, as the title suggests, I wish to point out those experiences which confirms that belief causes our our intelligence to widen or contract depending on it being in the affirmation or negation.
First of these applies to all those who were preparing for an entrance exam or any exam for the matter, and had a lot of problems to solve. All the students, who when get a question wrong are more probable to correct it, when told that they are wrong compared to when they aren’t and given chance to recheck. Just consider a simple example of a multiple correct question; often we with confidence mark an option, and are less likely to change one on being asked for confirmation. However when matched with answer key, if some choice gets wrong, many a times, we are almost instantly able to identify the mistake. What was it that triggered the nerves in our brain to form a chain of reasoning to explain our mistake, without any additional hint? Why was it that even when asked for confirmation of our choice, those logic links refused to connect and on knowing our mistake, they instantly connected?
Belief, voila! It all resides in one’s belief and a tendency to make certain beliefs to not feel the pain of CD and put our self in a better mental position.
When we marked an option, we would not want to doubt it, as doubt on the actions of self causes CD, unless we fear the unexpected consequences; as then we will face CD to avoid a future possible bad outcome. So when we were marking the options, we did not doubt those with such belief than when we were told that it is incorrect. As soon as we were told, the brain instantly set out to find the correct answer and the fallacy in the marked option.
Another very common and general experience of lives of everyone, where one can identify the power of belief is the content that we read, may it be a news article or personal views of authors and editors. If we believe in views of someone, our brain very quickly finds every reason to justify whatever he says and are blinded enough to identify any alternate reasoning that is against. While debating on a contentious topic, it is very easy to put the reasonings that supports our belief than doing an objective analysis. It can also be said that our explanations are not all logical and often hinge on our certain beliefs. But many a times, we even come up with the most sound reasoning for supporting our case. So it has to with what we want to do, and what we believe in. Even when we consciously try to take an observer’s position to view things objectively, our brain refuses to do so due to our set beliefs. It refuses to connect the nodes to form a reasoning that is incoherent with our deeply set beliefs. Because if it doesn’t, it will become a prey of cognitive dissonance. Our brain always tries to escape the uncomfortable position of CD and hence it is better able to reason out it’s beliefs rather than disbeliefs.
Often as in the latter case, it is quite evident how it is linked to what we believe, but in many cases as in the former when we were solving MCQ’s the dependency on belief is quite hidden. There are a lot more situations where it is hidden. The dependency of intelligence on beliefs is much more than what we think. And I tried to explain how the reason behind it is woven in the machinery of our brain and our mind, i.e. to escape the tyranny of Cognitive dissonance. So even if we deny the existence of any metaphysical and spiritual aspect to life, we can not now deny the fact that beliefs affect our intelligence, and hence our physical existence.
It’s generalization and consequences are far more tangible. It is not now superstitious to say that one who has belief in God and spiritual dimension of life, will be more able to come out of a difficult situation, because he will have a much more positive outlook towards life, and even in the most difficult situations, by believing that the whole universe, the God and his inner higher self is helping him, he is actually setting a belief on which brain responds by finding ways to get out of the tragedy. At worst we don’t know whether some non physical forces also helped him, but we can at least say that he helped himself just by believing in something.
Although, I do not give any explanation to how beliefs affect anything more than intelligence and an indirect effect on the physical, i.e. through intelligence, it will not not be an exaggeration to extend the idea to at least responses of the physical body. The body much governed by cummulative effect of what had been going on in the brain (thought memory cells) and what’s going on now (through harmones and nerve impulses), it is fair to believe that beliefs by affecting our intelligence also affects our physiological response.
Whether metaphysical dimensions to life exist or not, at worst we don’t know yet. Those who firmly believe that it doesn’t are as bad as religious extremists who are not open to any new ideas. This topic is something that has not being researched enough by the contemporary scientists. One might say that we do not have a mass reproduceable evidence necessary for any scientific belief and may not comply with the rationalism principle, but we have enough sensory arguments which asks for a greater need for explanation and a sound theory. Rejection without rationalizig it’s non existence implies rejecting the sensory evidence, which is the first motivation and a sign of truth behind any science. In any case it doesn’t stop us explaining the believed sensory principles even denying the existence of metaphysical. That is the beauty of nature where behind every effect there are multiple causes.
