Deprogramming
Amar Bahadur Shrestha
October 03, 2008
Herpes Zoster is a common enough word nowadays and this viral infection´s ways and means of torturing the affected are known that much as to have led to the development of specific anti virals. Still one has to keep up with the torture of painful boil like symptoms along the nerve pathways from whose domicile the virus has begun to multiply and manifest itself. In spite of this knowledge and the availability of panacea, many sufferers still go to faith healers to have a lion´s head painted around the periphery of the affected parts with the belief that the spread of herpes will be stopped and eventually got rid of altogether.
No amount of convincing these believers that the virus will anyway complete its life cycle within seven to ten days and they will be cured anyhow, will turn them from their conviction that the lion´s -head painting is the only cure.
The above is just one example among millions of beliefs people have which are based on lack of knowledge and education. And there are another million or so beliefs that are due to the handing down from generation to generation those things known as customs, values and tradition. Many a time education and knowledge are still not enough to rid people of such beliefs.
People live by their convictions, it is said, but my, oh my, do they compromise when the going gets tough. Hardly can the word ´conviction´ be applied truthfully at such times. People simply do not have beliefs in their beliefs, they are convinced, their belief is true. Why I am saying the same things in so many words is because of the fact that beliefs if true, do not really need to be put to the test of questioning inner convictions if what the belief is all about is really true.
The belief in God is so universal, no matter what name God goes by and it is actually a beneficial belief if not taken to the extreme, and usually this is actually a beautiful thing for an individual´s morale, that it has ceased to be a belief. It is more a part of life, discounting the minority atheists who anyway would ask help from some Almighty or the other if the plane they were traveling in were to catch a couple of air pockets. Needless to say God will not be the name given to this Almighty.
However the beliefs spawned by God´s worship, namely religion, is what has become something to fear. The belief that one´s religion is better than the other´s or that one´s religion's gospels go against the grain of others' has become truly a cause for antipathy, antagonism and most often an excuse to go to war.
Similarly, beliefs such as one's cast and creed being superior to others' are also a revolting truth of the times. Fortunately, unlike religion, there are positive signs of more tolerance and understanding in downplaying, and in some cases, the getting rid of altogether, such negative beliefs.
All that I am trying to prove is that belief is not only a personal thing, though many would like to so believe, beliefs can be terribly communal, national or even universal. Where in it can become somewhat uncontrollable, much like the making of mob psychology. One gets swept along with the tide so to say, and one can well imagine where it will lead to, if, heaven forbid, it is going in the wrong direction. More succinctly, if the belief is of negative or antagonistic impact.
Therefore it would be the right thing to keep beliefs what they are claimed to be, that is, personal. No way should beliefs be allowed to rule the heart in such a way as to fuddle the head. And no way should one be extremist in the acute sense of the word in standing up for one´s beliefs.
One´s convictions or principles, or belief, whatever you call it, is something that has to be understood to have been embedded in raw and fertile minds from the time we were born, from the time we could not even think coherently. Handed down from generation to generation, from the dictums that make up our society, from literature that has made the rules of civilization down the ages.
It would be foolish to think that what we call our beliefs are things of our making and that we are the superior for having certain beliefs. Chances are that a million more similar two legged Homo-sapiens have the same beliefs, you don´t have any extraordinary superiority over at least a million others, so why display superiority as reflected in fiery thoughts and fiery actions when your beliefs are challenged?
If only you, one among millions, realize this, then rest assured again that this is nothing extraordinary. Probably thousands more will soon be getting a similar awakening and then a million more. Is there a superman out there among the masses? Not at all, and so naturally one has to accept that similarities in reasoning as well as awakenings of the mind are bound to occur among many of the masses.
Mass programming maybe the word and mass deprogramming maybe the need. Deprogramming of deeply embedded beliefs in the psyche of millions will surely not achieve the end of beliefs as such, but the realization that people can be tolerant of each other´s diverse beliefs can surely be achieved. And that no belief, however personal, is that extraordinary a thing as to warrant extraordinary reactions. All one has to be is to be among the awakened.
No amount of convincing these believers that the virus will anyway complete its life cycle within seven to ten days and they will be cured anyhow, will turn them from their conviction that the lion´s -head painting is the only cure.
The above is just one example among millions of beliefs people have which are based on lack of knowledge and education. And there are another million or so beliefs that are due to the handing down from generation to generation those things known as customs, values and tradition. Many a time education and knowledge are still not enough to rid people of such beliefs.
People live by their convictions, it is said, but my, oh my, do they compromise when the going gets tough. Hardly can the word ´conviction´ be applied truthfully at such times. People simply do not have beliefs in their beliefs, they are convinced, their belief is true. Why I am saying the same things in so many words is because of the fact that beliefs if true, do not really need to be put to the test of questioning inner convictions if what the belief is all about is really true.
The belief in God is so universal, no matter what name God goes by and it is actually a beneficial belief if not taken to the extreme, and usually this is actually a beautiful thing for an individual´s morale, that it has ceased to be a belief. It is more a part of life, discounting the minority atheists who anyway would ask help from some Almighty or the other if the plane they were traveling in were to catch a couple of air pockets. Needless to say God will not be the name given to this Almighty.
However the beliefs spawned by God´s worship, namely religion, is what has become something to fear. The belief that one´s religion is better than the other´s or that one´s religion's gospels go against the grain of others' has become truly a cause for antipathy, antagonism and most often an excuse to go to war.
Similarly, beliefs such as one's cast and creed being superior to others' are also a revolting truth of the times. Fortunately, unlike religion, there are positive signs of more tolerance and understanding in downplaying, and in some cases, the getting rid of altogether, such negative beliefs.
All that I am trying to prove is that belief is not only a personal thing, though many would like to so believe, beliefs can be terribly communal, national or even universal. Where in it can become somewhat uncontrollable, much like the making of mob psychology. One gets swept along with the tide so to say, and one can well imagine where it will lead to, if, heaven forbid, it is going in the wrong direction. More succinctly, if the belief is of negative or antagonistic impact.
Therefore it would be the right thing to keep beliefs what they are claimed to be, that is, personal. No way should beliefs be allowed to rule the heart in such a way as to fuddle the head. And no way should one be extremist in the acute sense of the word in standing up for one´s beliefs.
One´s convictions or principles, or belief, whatever you call it, is something that has to be understood to have been embedded in raw and fertile minds from the time we were born, from the time we could not even think coherently. Handed down from generation to generation, from the dictums that make up our society, from literature that has made the rules of civilization down the ages.
It would be foolish to think that what we call our beliefs are things of our making and that we are the superior for having certain beliefs. Chances are that a million more similar two legged Homo-sapiens have the same beliefs, you don´t have any extraordinary superiority over at least a million others, so why display superiority as reflected in fiery thoughts and fiery actions when your beliefs are challenged?
If only you, one among millions, realize this, then rest assured again that this is nothing extraordinary. Probably thousands more will soon be getting a similar awakening and then a million more. Is there a superman out there among the masses? Not at all, and so naturally one has to accept that similarities in reasoning as well as awakenings of the mind are bound to occur among many of the masses.
Mass programming maybe the word and mass deprogramming maybe the need. Deprogramming of deeply embedded beliefs in the psyche of millions will surely not achieve the end of beliefs as such, but the realization that people can be tolerant of each other´s diverse beliefs can surely be achieved. And that no belief, however personal, is that extraordinary a thing as to warrant extraordinary reactions. All one has to be is to be among the awakened.
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