The Power of Belief

Many think that the benefits and the seemingly miraculous results of belief are based on speculative or abstract reasoning, or the metaphysical. Learn how successful people use belief to accomplish amazing things.

Many think that the benefits and the seemingly miraculous results of belief are based on speculative or abstract reasoning, or the metaphysical.  However, this is not the case.  The power of belief is proven almost daily in the medical and scientific community and is known as the placebo effect.  When researchers test the effects of new drugs on humans, they give the drug to some of the volunteers and they give a placebo, or an inactive substance or preparation, to the rest of the volunteers.  In almost all cases, some of the volunteers that were given the placebo report the same effects as those who were given the actual drug.

Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, believes that the effectiveness of Prozac and similar drugs may be attributed almost entirely to the placebo effect. He and Guy Sapirstein analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness (Kirsch 1998).  "The critical factor," says Kirsch, "is our beliefs about what's going to happen to us. You don't have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation."*

Dr. Deepak Chopra, best-selling author and one of the leaders in the field of mind, body and spirit healing, is a big advocate of the power of belief and its seemingly miraculous effects on the body.  He cites several studies of patients with multiple personality disorder who display different physical traits with each personality, like visible allergic reactions on the skin, high blood pressure, and even different color eyes for each personality.  He also discusses cases where several of his patients have used the power of belief to get rid of cancer in their bodies.

Success is having belief and not going though life as a cynical skeptic.  Remember, thought and imagination are about the only things in this world that are limitless. The body and human spirit often are limited by what one believes is possible.  Prior to Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute barrier to running one mile in 1954, no one else was able to achieve this goal and many thought it was not humanly possible.  Shortly after Bannister's new record, many other runners broke the self-imposed mental barrier and broke the 4-minute mile as well.

There is a metaphysical part to belief. This theory states that when you truly believe in something, the forces of the universe work toward making that belief a manifestation, or giving physical form to the belief.  A great example of this is money.  Before you can acquire a significant amount, you must believe that you can.  This belief over time, with persistence and practical application, will manifest itself into money.

Believe you will succeed and you will.  Believe in your own abilities and have faith in yourself.  As Napoleon Hill, one of the early 20th century experts in success wrote, "Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

* Source: Kirsch, Irving , Ph.D. and Guy Sapirstein, Ph.D. "Listening to Prozac but Hearing Placebo: A Meta-Analysis of Antidepressant Medication"  Prevention & Treatment, Volume 1, June 1998.

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