Thoughts on Questioning Core Beliefs

Short excerpt from “The Systems View of Life” by Fritjof Capra:

“Maturana emphasizes that the phenomenon of language does not occur in the brain but in a continual flow of coordinations of behavior. As humans, we exist in language and we continually weave the linguistic web in which we are embedded. We coordinate our behavior in language, and together in language we bring forth our world. “The world everyone sees,” write Maturana and Varela (1987, p. 245), “is not the world but a world, which we bring forth with others.” [emphasis added] This human world centrally includes our inner world of abstract thought, concepts, beliefs, mental images, intentions, and self-awareness. In a human conversation, our concepts and ideas, emotions, and body movements become tightly linked in a complex choreography of behavioral coordination.”

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To change our world, we need to change our worldview. To change our worldview, we need to become aware that we have a worldview and that our worldview only discloses the limits of our world, not the world. Cultivating such awareness is the work of developmental psychology. Being able to look AT the socially constructed lenses into which we are inculcated by our family-upbringing-culture instead of THROUGH those lenses is no mean feat because it requires questioning our core beliefs. And core beliefs are closely tied to identity.

Over the years, I’d had to modify many beliefs. Most recently, my beliefs about the brain and emotions have been considerably rearranged as I’ve been reading Lisa Feldman Barrett’s marvelous: How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. I’ve also had to abandon some beliefs. My belief in the omnipotent god of my early years has long since fallen by the wayside. And, thanks to recent exposure to some systems of thought and experience that are outside my worldview, I am slowly becoming aware of how my mind has been colonized by the culture in which I grew up and the extremely limited ways of seeing the world that has engendered. Decolonizing your mind is rewarding but it’s not for the faint of heart!

As humans, we tend to become so identified with our beliefs that anyone or anything that questions them is seen as a threat. Beliefs are the psyche’s Achilles’ Heel. When we hold strong beliefs, we think we see “‘The World’ as it truly is.” But sooner or later, someone or something comes along and reveals that our beliefs don’t accurately reflect the larger reality in which we live. What we do when we bump up against the limits of our worldview may well be the determining factor between life and death and this seems especially true at the level of big collective belief structures such as the millions of people who think we can’t afford to save our biosphere without wrecking our economy.

If our strongly held beliefs prevent us from considering evidence that is contrary to those beliefs, how can we hope to learn? And what do we do if large segments of the population continue to stick to their beliefs even when mountain ranges of evidence pile up indicating that their beliefs need modifying?

“Everyone takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.” ~Schopenhauer

There’s a saying among scientists, that, “When it comes to evolution, learning is mandatory and survival is optional.” I remind myself often that 99.99% of all the species that have ever existed are now extinct. While not comforting, I find this reminder both sobering and inspiring. I want to do whatever I can to see that humans get the chance to be around for at least as long as the dinosaurs – who with brains the size of walnuts – walked the Earth for some 150 million years. Surely homo sapiens sapiens, with our giant brains can figure out how to best the dinosaurs record for existence! How many businesses, governments, or communities think in evolutionary timeframes? What might shift in our collective thinking and behavior if more of us made the attempt to imagine life 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, or even 1,000,000,000 years from now?

There are schools of thought that say the boundaries between the worlds of the dead, the living, and the unborn are permeable. The Celtics (not the ones from Boston) say that what is ailing in this world can only be healed by a connection to the other world. What understandings might pass through these diaphanous membranes when we allow ourselves to entertain the notion that past, present, and future are capable of shaping each other? What if granting legitimacy to these mystical ideas, if only as useful imaginal realms that can inform us in practical ways, is a key to our long-term viability? Personally, I like to stretch my mind out into deep time as a regular practice. I recognize that I am a bridge between my ancestors and my descendants and as I draw ever closer to becoming an ancestor more and more of my thinking turns to how can I be of service in The Great Transition or The Great Turning that is now underway.

With the above in mind, I'd like to pose the following set of questions for your reflection and input:

How strongly do you cling to what you identify as true?

Or slightly rephrased, how much questioning about your worldview can you sit with before you become uncomfortable?

What happens to your listening when you become uncomfortable?

What, if anything, do you do to counteract your discomfort and stay focused on your listening and increase your ability to tolerate information that disconfirms your beliefs?

How much questioning of your worldview can you sit with before you become defensive?

What happens to your listening when you become defensive?

What happens in your body when you become defensive?

What emotions do you experience? How do those emotions manifest? How do they affect your thinking and your behavior? In what direction do those emotions move the conversation?

What happens/what do you do when you feel the urge to counterattack, disrupt, or challenge whomever questions your assumptions?

Does acting in that manner help or hinder the situation? How do you feel afterwards? How do the other(s) in the conversation feel and respond to your moves?

What could you do differently that might bring about a more satisfying outcome for everyone concerned?

Who and what can support you when someone questions things you hold dear and then requests you to provide evidence for the claims you make? How can you rise to that challenge with intelligence, grace, and dignity?

What arises for you when you read these questions? What else would you add to the above list?