How to Believe Our Life into Fruition.

What if our beliefs become the basis for our existence?

There’s a whole lot of crap we don’t know about this world. And that terrifies us. We know we will never know everything, but we’re humans and we think we deserve to know everything, so we have developed a desire to latch on to some kind of pathway that might one day lead us there. We call these our Beliefs.

And we tend to believe, ironically, that beliefs are what we dictate our lives by. There are many kinds. Not everybody agrees with each other. Most people lean towards at least one. Some people disregard them all. In whichever instance, the whole belief system works by us, the Believer (see: not Belieber. Please no, I beg of you) attaching our lifestyles, our mindsets, to a specific context and then living by it. You know the stuff:

• Religion (there are, of course, the classic examples. And some unconventional stragglers. Even Tom Cruise managed to brand one for himself).
• Spirituality (spoiler alert: this isn’t just being a big fan of alcoholic spirits. That requires a different church group meeting entirely).
• Science (pretty sure I’ve heard of this somewhere before? Probably on the television).

Now, not all of us fall within one of those predetermined brackets. But honestly, most of us have dipped a tentative toe in at least one. Even if you don’t avidly follow along with the latest advancements in chemistry, even if you’ve only prayed once in the last seventeen years, even if you bought a crystal choker necklace and left it on your desk, only for your cat to pat it down behind the radiator — you’ve still given it a go.

And it’s from here that’s got me thinking: we’re so convinced that what we believe is how the world — the universe — seemingly works. But. Wait. What if? What if it’s the other way around?

What if what you believe is then what becomes?

Okay, so. Hear me out, guys:

Religion

Those who are religious typically believe in the power of a higher being, and shape their life around the teachings of a certain text, which defines the values and morals and very nature of that specific religion. From here, how they behave corresponds accordingly. They become good neighbours and forgiving friends, they subdue fear and share hope, they celebrate holidays and have intrinsic faith, all because that is what their beliefs have taught them they exist to uphold. Their ethics and principles are derived from what they believe to be the true purpose of life and thus, their soul flourishes from there. It’s not necessarily the seed that determines the growth, but the environment it is nurtured within.

And anyway. Any baby that is gifted bloody gold for their literal birthday clearly must have some kind of authority, you know?

Spirituality

Chakras, crystals, astrology. Reiki, feng shui, healing. There are an array of meditative practises, cosmic healings, tethers and links and vibrational phases that are a present part of the lives of those who follow spirituality (I’m pretty sure at least one of those things is the name of a perfume).

And honestly, it’s developed an undeserved reputation. It’s frequently made fun of and disregarded as whimsical, flimsy, nonsensical crap. In the distance we hear Jeff, 67, bookies owner from Bradford, scoffing to himself whilst he makes fun of his niece, Danielle, 31, for wearing a rose quartz around her neck. He mocks her, saying that the only magic that exists is whatever his wife, Lydia, baked into those brownies last weekend. What he doesn’t realise, however, is that the stained Sheffield United pants he’s been wearing for the past three days function as the exact same thing. She believes in the restoring properties of her crystal, he believes that by wearing the merchandise of his favourite football team, they might begin to suck less. Same principle.

But anyway, your honour, I’ve finished defending Spirituality for the moment. Now might I present to you my case and point?

What I mean is, people who believe and operate under the rules and routines and rituals of these spiritual phenomenons tend to perceive life through those literal rose tinted glasses. People who believe in their enneagrams tend to act more like the traits defined within them. People who believe in the phases of the moon dictate their mood by it. People who believe in astrology often show the exact characteristics that correspond with their star sign. Those who surround themselves with incense, who meditate beneath the night sky, who dash off to retreats in the mountaintops to connect with whatever cosmic source is out there — they live as though this is the right way, the only way to live.

And thus, their life becomes a projection of this truth.

Science

There are many branches of science, a lot of which tend to govern the very foundation of our lives. Most of us tend to believe in science in some ways — whether we think so or not — to the point where we don’t even define it as a belief, but tangible fact. We know about gravity. We know we need to eat a balanced selection of foods each day (in my case, that’s just eight packets of caramel digestives balanced on top of one another). We know at what temperature water boils, how trees generate oxygen and which species of felines are more likely to tear into us if we fuss them. We know the length of a year (redefined recently as the passage of time between March and later on in March). We know how to make kids (some people like to reconfirm this fact, repeatedly). We know that the Earth is round (awkward glance at my hands whilst I wait for the flat Earthers to climb back up onto the edge of the planet, leg it to my house and kick my ass).

And yeah, in this sense, we all become what science has told us. We are literally what science labels as Human Beings™, operating within the boundaries that we know come in conjunction with that. Mortal, self-aware, absolute morons (unless you’re Robert Pattinson. In which case you’re immortal, sharp-jawed and currently pasted onto my wall beside a sketch of a fat squirrel).

But science has more layers to it than that, some that are scarcely common knowledge. A lot of us know of them, but unless we delve into them, we don’t really pay any attention to them. Things like special relativity, quantum realms, inter-dimensional travel. The Multiverse theorem, everything we do or don’t know about space and time. These are reserved for those who truly believe in the possibilities that come along with them, those who invest every man-made hour of their man-made day into researching and revising and reinventing science as we know it.

And it’s those people, the ones who believe that there are parallel universes spanning infinity, that our conscious minds can detach from our physical forms and operate in ways we might never discover, that the past the present the future are all concepts that, actually, exist all at once. It’s those people who live by those beliefs, maybe not as obviously as the above, but it’s there. It’s there in the way that they seek out research, or begin their own. It’s there in how they question everything we think we know about life, because we often find that we’re wrong. It’s there in the innate desire to prove their belief as fact.

I think that’s the difference for science. Because it has become such an all-encompassed, accepted part of our world, we tend to define it by having consequential evidence laid out before us. But are theories and hypotheses, themselves, not just beliefs before they have been proven? They funnel in resources and brain power and endless hours until they are finally met with concrete proof.

But it’s the belief that they are right that drives them to this point, to begin with.

Believe It or Not

What if belief was just our individual way of connecting with the universe? Like crystals are some people’s way of retaining cosmic energy. Like religion is another way of connecting with a higher cosmic being. Like the study of cosmology, a way of exploring the known universe. There are believers of demons and the supernatural and the universal energy which binds us. There are believers in peace and others in war. I mean, there are even those who truly believe that Team Jacob is the correct team to be on (although that’s less of a belief more of a bad choice and entirely false).

And what if each one of these belief systems works for them because they believe in it? What if our entire lives are determined by exactly where we place our minds? It goes for the little things, too. If you believe you are a bad person, you tend to grant yourself permission to do bad things. If you believe you are a brave person, you are more freely able to tackle your fears. If you believe you are a hungry person then hot damn hide the biscuits. If you believe you are powerful, you are actively confirming with the world around you that you are, you are bringing that reality into fruition, you are making it happen.

The question is: how do you make yourself believe?

The answer? You open up your mind. Meditate on it. Write about it. Talk it out loud. The more you expose yourself to the idea, the more it ingrains in both the universe and your soul. Sure, the world can beat it out of you. It often tries. And sometimes it can fluctuate, you can doubt yourself or forget yourself but always remember to forgive yourself and move on. Always try believe in yourself, before you believe in anything other.

And yeah. I’m not saying that none of these beliefs are explicitly true. And I’m not saying that they’re not true either. What if they all were? What if, by believing in something, we make it a truth? You see my point? What if belief was like a really potent placebo effect — so much so that it transcends the placebo and becomes real, the moment we let ourselves latch onto it?

What if we can believe our life into existence? Make anything we can imagine, come true? Become exactly who we are meant to be?

And you know what?

I believe we can.