Non-beliefs; Not Believing in Something

In today's blog, I want to talk about what would generally be considered the flip side of beliefs--non-beliefs; not believing in something.

It is amazing with how much righteousness those who pride themselves in being "rational" thinkers will declare, "I don't believe in that." It is as though, with that simple statement, they have elevated themselves above the gullible, naive individual who had made a statement about something the person did not believe in. The statement could be about anything--something the person experienced, or something that person had read about--it could be anything outside of what is considered what has been established as accepted "fact."

This occurred to me not long ago; I had been invited to join a friend of mine for lunch one Sunday. As was common, she had invited others, whom I knew, to join us. On some occasions, acquaintances of those friends were also asked to join the group. As I have a certain "reputation" in that community, there are those who join us who are of the "skeptical" persuasion. As I enjoy stirring up the thought processes, I am not shy about talking about what are considered unorthodox subjects.

A few of us had been discussing one of these topics, when one of the individuals, who was new to the community, stated, in no uncertain terms, "I don't believe in that!" I responded, "Not believing in something is just as much a belief, if not more so, than believing in something." This comment obviously shocked him, and delighted a few of those present, who knew me somewhat better.

As another example of this, a few years ago, I was participating in a memorial service for a dear friend of mine, who was known throughout this small city where I reside, and highly respected for her contribution to the community. Her interest in things outside what is considered acceptable, was the source of much amusement behind her back, where she lived, which I was aware of. The service was being held in the Community Room of the community mentioned above, with many from the wider community in attendance.

Being aware of, and annoyed by, their disrespect of her amazing intellect and life accomplishments, I had put together a sort of "defense of her unorthodox interests." One of those interests was in human giant-ism. In preparation, I had put together a pictorial display showing pictures validating a number of those interests, including giant-ism.

It just so happened that I had downloaded from the Internet a picture of a skeleton which had recently been found in the desert in the Middle East by oil company employees. This skeleton had immediately been made inaccessible to any outsiders. Fortunately for the world, a pilot had photographed the skeleton, and the photo was made public by a Middle Eastern News Service. Judging from the size of the living humans removing the sand from around the skeleton, this individual had been approximately 45-feet tall(!), and in all ways proportional as in human anatomy. This is an amazing picture.

After I had finished my presentation, a gentleman, who had known my friend, who had been a friend of his fathers, from childhood was to speak. The first thing out of his mouth was, "I don't believe in giants." Saying you do not believe in something will not make the evidence go away!

The "I don't believe ins," which are part of one's individual belief system, you have been indoctrinated with and have had programmed into you, along with those things you believe in, unless you have retained a trust in your own perceptions and experiences. This is particularly true, if you experienced what are considered to be "psychic phenomena"--you had an invisible friend when you were a child; you have seen a relative after they "died," you talk about "when you used to be alive, before," etc., etc. Such talk "freaks out" many parents, so at a very young age those who experience such things, stop talking about them, and rapidly forget about ever experiencing them at all, in most instances.

Vast numbers of people experience "impossible" things. I was one of those people who did not believe in many things; I was a rational/intellectual person after all! I maintained this stance, even though many members of my immediate family did experience such things. It was only after I was having some health problems, in the late '60's, which caused me to, unintentionally, see a doctor who also was interested in hypnotherapy as a treatment modality, that this attitude of mine changed. What he did was prescribe a book to me having to do with self-hypnosis, and how we can change what we experience through its use. This book presented techniques for changing what was one's reality, by working with the unconscious self. This information about what is or is not physically possible, opened up a whole new world of information to me. It opened up to me, because I had, finally, opened up to it.

It is amazing how much interest there is in many of these subjects currently; if you have such experiences and/or interests, talk about them with your friends, you may be surprised at how open they are to talk about them with you. There is not something wrong with you, as you may have been told, no matter who has told you, or how many letters they have after there name.

In so saying, I end this blog.

Shirley Gallup