Layers Of Beliefs

The exploration of the highest reaches of human nature and of its ultimate possibilities has involved for me the continuous destruction of cherished axioms, the perpetual coping with seeming paradoxes, contradictions and vagueness and the occasional collapse around my ears of long established, firmly believed in and seemingly unassailable laws of psychology.

Abraham Maslow, the 20th century American psychologist, is considered the founder of humanistic psychology. Maslow identified a hierarchy of four layers of basic needs. The four basic needs are: physiological esteem, love, friendship and security. Beyond those levels higher levels of needs exist. Those needs include understanding, esthetic appreciation and spiritual needs. When all of those needs are satisfied the need for self-actualization is activated, which means a person becomes the person they think they were born to be.

We live in a body filled with beliefs. Maslow identifies needs, but in essence he is talking about our belief structure. Our ideas and thoughts are not shadow images. They are electromagnetic realities that have substance. Thoughts and ideas impact our nervous system and the body responds accordingly.

Our conscious mind is designed to evaluate and assess our physical reality so we can chart a course in our corporeal universe. The energy within the inner self is concentrated to initiate the results asked for by the conscious mind. Our power of action follows the concentrated thoughts and ideas that we turn into beliefs. If we believe we are weak we deny our power of action. Similar beliefs attract each other. We like to be consistent in our experiences as well as our behavior.

Learning to deal with beliefs directly instead of indirectly will change the way we look at the self. If we combine our beliefs with imagination and emotions and form a mental picture of the desired results we can initiate action that will manifest physically. In other words, the inner self creates what we want and the conscious mind responds, but the responses may be tainted with certain beliefs that restrict rather than expand our desires.