Practical

NeuroWisdom
Belief Relief

7
Brain-Based
Strategies to Free
Yourself from
Limiting Beliefs

by Christopher Van Buren

 Belief Relief
7 Brain-Based Strategies
to Free Yourself from
Limiting Beliefs

Christopher Van Buren

This book is copyright © 2021 by Van Buren Publishing and the respective
authors and contributors. All Rights Reserved.

Version 1.5 (First Edition)

Managing Editor: Mark Waldman
Design: Van Buren Publishing
Cover: Van Buren Publishing

1171 S. Robertson #124

Los Angeles, CA 90035
www.VanBurenPublishing.com
 Acknowledgments:
Thanks go to my friend and mentor, Mark Waldman, for all the
great brain science, stimulating conversations and…art.

Thanks also to my wife, Edna, the chemist, the dancer, the superb
thinker, the jewel of my life.
Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................... 5
Beliefs: True or False? .......................................................................... 7
How Beliefs Happen ........................................................................ 8
Beliefs, Cognitive Bias & Free Will .................................................. 9
The Strategies
Notice Your Beliefs ........................................................................ 11
Context and More Context ............................................................. 13
Manipulate Your Perceptions ......................................................... 15
Associations: The Good, The Bad and, well, you know ................. 18
Suspending Belief & Disbelief ........................................................ 20
Into the Mouth of the Dragon ......................................................... 22
Expand Your Networks .................................................................. 24
Final Thoughts .................................................................................... 25
Introduction: It’s Complicated
I’ve been hearing about the power of beliefs and the danger of negative beliefs (or limiting
beliefs) for decades. The self-help world jumped on this bandwagon early-on and hasn’t
stopped banging the belief drum for as long as I can remember.

It seems that beliefs matter. They affect our lives, our behaviors, our outcomes in life. We know
that belief is an important ingredient in a successful placebo effect. When a person believes
they’ve been given a cure, they’re more likely to have positive effects from a placebo (a false
cure). But we also discovered that people given a placebo who were told it was a placebo have
repeatedly performed as well as those who were not told. How did belief work in those people
who knew they were getting a fake cure?

And then there’s the notion that belief is not an on/off switch. It comes in degrees of certainty.
Some people would have you think that unless you believe something with all your heart, mind,
and soul (no doubt of any kind), the belief won’t bear fruit. This is true of many “Law of
Attraction” teachings as well as faith-based teachings in all major religions. They would have
you think that somehow “magic happens” when you cross the threshold into “zero doubt.”

Oh, you didn’t get the results you wanted…well, you probably had some small doubt in the back
of your mind. In other words, it’s your beliefs that are at fault.

But that’s what cults do. We should be cautious of giving away our critical thinking to any belief.
We know that we “believe” some things more completely than others. Belief in the truth of a
thing seems to come in degrees. Is anything worthy of 100% belief?

But my frustration with beliefs really started with the idea that we can change, eliminate or
somehow re-wire our beliefs – you know, the ones we don’t want. The ones that are sabotaging
our dreams and desires.

And therein lies the rub. Two rubs, in fact. First, brain science shows us that re-wiring the brain
is not something that can happen easily or by repeating affirmations, guided meditations or
binaural beats (don’t get me started). Neuroplasticity does not appear to be something we can
simply control and orchestrate at will. And just how neuro-plastic are our brains anyway? We
can’t just decide to change our beliefs on a whim. And yet, we’ve probably all seen or
experienced an almost instant “aha” experience that shifted our beliefs about something. We
discovered some truth that changed everything we formerly thought and assumed to be true.

It happens.
But we seldom make it happen by choice. It seems to happen to us when we least expect it. In
most cases, we believe what we believe because we want those beliefs…we find them useful or
accurate on some level. And that brings me to rub number two…

What the hell are “limiting beliefs” anyway? From a brain-science point of view, all beliefs are
limiting – so what we probably mean by that is that some of our beliefs are not supporting our
goals and desires. They are sabotaging our own dreams. We call those “limiting beliefs”
because we feel that they are holding us back from being more. We could just as easily call
them “unwanted” beliefs.

But are they?

Are our limiting beliefs also unwanted? Or are they simply in conflict with our goals?

I submit that our beliefs are always wanted. They are aligned with our values (as best as we can
align them given our context – stay tuned for more on this) and that’s what might be in conflict
with our goals.

Can you say that your dreams

are truly in alignment with your
values? Is it really your beliefs
that need to change…or is it your
goals…or your values? Would
you even want to change your
values?

What if you could be wealthy and

have the lifestyle you dream
of…but you’d have to become a
narcissist to do so…you would
no longer value other people’s
feelings? Would you make that
trade? Probably not. Most of us want to have our dreams come true without having to change
our values or beliefs. Without having to become someone else.

It’s complicated and that’s why I decided to explore the subject in this little book. My goal is to
simplify the story around beliefs and provide some real brain-based strategies to help us gain
some control of our assumptions, connections, associations and … the rest.

I hope I’ve accomplished this to some degree.

Beliefs: True or False?
Beliefs are the subject of great attention in the world of personal and professional development.
I’m going to come right out and say it…most so-called “experts” get it wrong. They tell you that
you can “eliminate negative beliefs” or “re-wire your brain to change negative beliefs into
positive beliefs.”

Anyone who teaches this just isn’t up to

date on brain science.

The truth is, memory, behavior, and belief

patterns are indelible. They cannot be
erased from the brain. But over time, and
with great effort, they can slowly change
into new patterns of behavior and belief.
How those changes can occur and how
we can influence them is the subject of
this book. But before we jump into how
that’s done, let me be super clear about
what beliefs are…

Beliefs are assumptions about the truth

or falsehood of our perceptions of the
world around us. There is no belief that
does not also include an assumption
about truth or falsehood. In fact, you might
even say that an assumption of truth or
falsehood is all any belief actually is. The
assumption of truth or falsehood can be
based on evidence or faith or cognitive
bias (existing beliefs), but it’s really not
more complicated than true/false
assumptions.

We humans tend to assume that our

perceptions are true. We believe the sky is
blue and that the chair we’re about to sit in
will not collapse. But we can also update
our assumptions based on our evaluation
of new data (evidence or cognitive bias).
That chair looks old and the wood appears
to be rotten…it might not hold me. This process involves the cognitive center of the brain.*

So while some beliefs do not require much cognitive processing (the sun is hot, that dog has big
teeth), most of the beliefs that we consider “limiting” or otherwise consequential to our lives are
the ones that involve some cognitive process. Some beliefs involve more cognitive processing
than others. For example, beliefs related to us/them interactions can often require very little
cognitive processing. Our Us versus Them evaluations seem almost hard-wired in our brains.
Studies show that people who are shown photographs of faces in a subliminal manner, will react
differently when the face is a person of a different race. Before the cognitive center can engage,
the amygdala has already reacted to the face and it tends to find people of other races to be
more angry (and threatening) than faces of same race people. **

Other beliefs require much more cognitive evaluation. Is that person being sarcastic or serious?
Should I be offended? Why does he seem to be ridiculing me? If I respond negatively to this
person, what will the others in the group think of me? These are all complex evaluations that
require the prefrontal cortext (PFC); and our conclusions (assumptions) might even be revised
later, as we think more about them.

Do we have control of the cognitive process that evaluates data and makes a true or false
conclusion about it? Do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us? And how are beliefs
formed in the brain, anyway? Let’s start there – the forming of beliefs involves a series of
steps…

How Beliefs Happen

We process information about the world around us and make assumptions about the truth or
falsehood of that information. We do this in part, so we can predict the future and either relax
and let it happen or get up and run like hell. Over time this process has become somewhat
subtle and nuanced, but the basic idea is the same. And it all starts with perception.

Step 1: Perception
Perception comes primarily from our senses of the world around us. What we
see, hear, taste, smell and feel are primary inputs into our brain. But we also
perceive information from our internal world – memories that resurface, dreams,
random thoughts and emotions. Some experts might also say that words shape
the reality that we perceive,*** which brings us to…

Step 2: Associations
Once we perceive the data coming to us from these sources, we make
immediate associations with other information stored in the brain. Words have
 associations with concepts, ideas, and even biases. Words about a utopian
afterlife can be associated with our fear of death and so on. The smell of apple
pie might immediately be associated with memories of home. Music can bring
up instant associations with the past. Brain networks are activated. Hormones
begin to flow. Even our genes can be switched on and off. ***

Step 3: Context
We then look at the context associated with the incoming data, which may
involve other senses. That apple pie smell…it’s coming from the bakery across
the street and the owner is a mean person. In his speech, he used the word
“brotherhood” but he was talking about racism, not fraternity.

Here we begin to use the cognitive center of the brain to evaluate the context
and form the appropriate associations. More brain networks are activated and
more hormones are released. More genes are switched on or off.

Step 4: Cognitive Evaluation: True or False

After context is processed, we make a cognitive evaluation of the data. Is it true
or false? Can I trust it or not? Does this change my future in any way? Here we
form the belief…or associate the data with an existing belief (“nothing new to
see here…move along”). And we return to homeostasis.

Beliefs, Cognitive Bias & Free Will

If you’re thinking that beliefs sure sound a lot like a type of cognitive bias, you’d be right. Beliefs
are indeed a type of cognitive bias. That’s why so many self-help schools value the idea of
eliminating them…or at least gaining some choice about them. Oh, sure, we use our cognitive
center in their formation, but do we really have a great deal of choice about how we process
perception into beliefs? So many influences that we have little control over are involved in the
formation of the belief. Our culture and our genetics influence the associations we make and our
biochemistry contributes to the mix by amplifying our moods and tendencies. We’re practically
hard wired to create us/them dichotomies and kinship preferences. **** All of these influences
affect how we process truth and falsehood.

Where does free will come into this picture?

I’m reminded of a scene in Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, where the author enters
his own book and interacts with the main character. He explains that he’s not really able to
control the character’s actions like a puppet or even like a marionette (pull the strings and he
moves). Instead, his control over the character is more like being connected by rubber
bands…he pulls on a rubber band and the character generally moves slowly in the desired
direction – or even sometimes in the wrong direction. The “control” he has is very wobbly and
rubbery.

That’s a bit like the control we have over our beliefs and cognitive processes. In time, and with a
lot of effort, we can influence the direction of our beliefs – through the rubbery nudging of our
associations and the wobbly expansion of context. The following strategies should help in this
endeavor.

* Rüdiger J.SeitzabHans-FerdinandAngel. Belief formation – A driving force for brain evolution. ScienceDirect 2020.

** Sapolsky, Robert M. Behave. Penguin 2017, pages 37-41

*** Waldman and Newberg, Words Can Change Your Brain, Penguin Plume 2012, page 27, 32

**** Sapolsky, Robert M. Behave. Penguin 2017, pages 107-120, 381-424

1
Notice Your Beliefs
The first and perhaps most important strategy
is all about awareness. You can’t increase
your choices if you don’t realize where you’ve
already made assumptions. Your beliefs are
assumptions, made consciously or
unconsciously, about the truth or falsehood of
your perceptions and associations regarding
the world around you. These assumptions will
influence how your brain processes
information in the future. Each belief limits
your thinking to some extent. That’s, in part,
their function.

Practice taking notice of where you’ve made

assumptions of truth and falsehood about the
world around you…and especially about your
culture. This is a deeply self-reflective practice
that requires a type of detachment from your
feelings and reactions.

Here are some ideas for how to start this

practice:

1 Think about common “hot topics” and

let your mind wander and your
thoughts and assumptions surface.
Some hot topics? How about race and religion? How about gender and sex? How about
wealth and poverty? Or caste, reputation, and status? If that doesn’t get things going,
try thinking about your personal successes and failures.
2 Notice what triggers you. Be aware of your sensitivities. What makes you angry? What
makes you roll your eyes? What makes you defensive or ashamed? What makes you
feel an injustice has occurred and what injustices do you feel have gone unpunished in
the world around you?
3 Let yourself rant. Get talking about the hot topics and let yourself rant about the ones
that trigger you. Let yourself get triggered, so you can release your cognitive bias in
words. Look for the assumptions of truth and falsehood in your rant.
 4 Look for times when you make black-and-white statements, such as “oh, all billionaires
are egomaniacs” or “all poor people are lazy.” You might make such statements off-
hand without even really noticing, so it could help to work with a partner who can watch
your language along with you.
5 When you identify a belief or bias, practice watching yourself think about it. Step back
into the part of you that can observe yourself and “watch yourself watching the world.”
This is the essence of mindful awareness…to pay attention on purpose. Now use this
point of view to watch yourself rant about the hot topics you’ve discovered.

When you practice this type of mindful awareness, you’ll begin to form a habit of doing so…and
you’ll begin to watch yourself more often and notice yourself and your thoughts. You can even
develop the habit of observing yourself every time you get triggered. This is a pleasurable
practice, but one that takes time to develop.

TIP: Various types of personality tests and self-assessments can help

you identify your hot topics (emotional triggers). A couple of ideas
include The Inner Entrepreneur Quiz and The Soul Purpose Quiz.
2
Context and More Context
Since context is what allows your
cognitive brain center to turn many of
your perceptions and associations into
beliefs, you can bet that adding more
context is a powerful way to change your
brain, disrupt cognitive bias, and re-
organize the connections and
associations stored in memory.

So…how do you add context?

My favorite practice for adding context to

any situation or thought process is what I
refer to as “zooming IN and zooming
OUT.” You can think of zooming in as
looking at more detail and increasing
intimacy with the subject, while zooming
out is looking at the big picture and
larger, sweeping storylines.

You may decide to increase your

knowledge about a topic through reading
or educational tools. This can help with
both zooming in and out – and it can add
context to any topic. For example, let’s
say you have an assumption about
landlords that says, “people who own
rental properties are always trying to
avoid investing in their properties. They
just want their renters to keep quiet and pay the rent.” What might happen to this belief if you
were to take a real estate course or learn about managing rental properties? That’s zooming in.
What if you were to take a course in macroeconomics and learn about the sweeping economic
history of land ownership and population? That’s zooming out.

When you add context to a topic of belief, your brain will naturally re-organize itself to include
the new information. It will, at first, try to associate the new data with existing associations and
assumptions. This is where practicing Strategy #1 in this book is helpful. Watch as your brain
tries to fit the new data into existing beliefs…then keep adding context until new connections are
formed. You’ll also find that Strategy #5 in this book helps by allowing you to suspend your
beliefs during this process of adding new context.

Exercise – After reading, studying or listening to something new (i.e.,

learning something), take a few minutes to sit in a relaxed manner in a
quiet space and let your mind wonder and wander. Tell yourself that you
are going to temporarily accept any thought that comes through your
mind and suspend belief and disbelief about it. Now ask yourself what
the most surprising piece of information was in the information you
digested. Write down what comes to your mind. Then ask what the most
important piece of information was. Then ask what three beliefs you
currently hold might be involved in (or affected by) this new information.
Don’t think consciously about this; instead, let your mind wander and
see what comes up.

The process of adding new context is a disruptive activity for your brain. It’s a form of stress. It
disrupts homeostasis in the brain that has already formed comfortable (and safe) assumptions.
Now you add new context that disrupts that stability. This is a good type of stress that stimulates
brain networks and cognitive processes. But the brain will try to find stability as quickly as
possible in an effort to anticipate the future and ensure self-preservation. The prefrontal cortex
(PFC) is constantly imagining a future outcome and creating strategies to achieve specific
goals. By most accounts, that’s its main job. Routing new data into existing beliefs is its first line
of defense, but if you keep adding context, you will eventually form new connections, behaviors,
beliefs, and memories that will make the brain’s networks more efficient.
3
Manipulate Your
Perceptions
The process of forming beliefs starts with
your perception of the world around you
(your culture) and the world inside you
(your biochemistry). It follows that
manipulating your perceptions will affect
your beliefs.

There are several ways to manipulate

perception that don’t require mind-altering
drugs (which can work quite well for this
process, but we’ll leave that for another
discussion). Here are three of my
favorites:

Priming Your Brain

Studies have shown that priming subjects
prior to introducing them to cognitive
challenges can significantly influence the
outcome of their performance. For
example, you may be familiar with the
cultural assumption that Asians are good
at math. A study of Asian Americans
shows that when the subjects were
primed to think of themselves as Asian, they performed better at math than when they were
primed to think of themselves as Americans.* When my wife, who is a Brazilian, goes to her
dance class and focuses on her Brazilian heritage, she gets ooohs and aaahs from the
teachers. There’s even a sense of “what did you expect, she’s Brazilian” in the air. When she is
not primed to think of herself as Brazilian, her dancing doesn’t get the same ooohs and aaahs.

We tend to live up to the priming we give ourselves.

Priming yourself can take on other dimensions. We can prime our environment by adding visual
or audible cues. The right music and lighting can make us feel romantic. Patients who are given
a placebo along with positive verbal or environmental priming perform better than those given
the same placebo without priming. **

So focus on your best attributes and prime yourself before going out into the world. Think of
priming as focusing on associations that are in your favor: I’m part Brazilian and Brazilians are
great dancers.

Here’s another tip about priming: The more of a ritual you make it, the stronger the priming and
the better it works. Choose your rituals to prime your brain for success!

Walking a Mile
Another way to manipulate your perceptions is to deliberately task yourself with perceiving from
a different point of view. This is the age-old practice known as walking a mile in someone else’s
shoes. This practice takes empathy and the ability to imagine another person’s perspective….a
cognitive skill known as Theory of Mind.

Theory of Mind develops starting at around age 5 (when we begin to realize that other people
have different thoughts and experiences than we do) and continues through age 7 (when we
can start to imagine how we would feel in another person’s situation) and then through teenage
(when we begin to be able to imagine what the other person is feeling – from their own
experience).

As adults, we can practice perceiving reality as another person would. It requires the
imagination center of the brain and an ability to remove yourself from the equation. Sometimes,
it requires some concentration or even a meditative state. You might even need to learn more
about the culture surrounding the individual or situation: How would it feel to live in the inner city
as a black American? What would it be like to experience a day in the life of a billionaire?

Practice this skill, starting with people and situations close to you…then expand to those farther
and farther from your own “home base.” This is a powerful skill and one that will yield great
results.

Changing Your Vocabulary

Changing your vocabulary is another great way to change perception. Start with your self-talk
and “inner speech.” *** Then move on to how you communicate with others. Try slowing down
your speech and listening more. Practice having an imaginary argument to “run through” your
thoughts and feelings on a subject. ***
Then, try emphasizing certain vocabulary over other vocabulary. Favor positive and affirming
words and be conscious about when and how you complain and criticize (I would never suggest
that you avoid complaining and criticizing, but try increasing your self-observation when you do).
Finally, try learning new words, including words from other languages, and use them in your
day-to-day life.

Exercise: Learn a new word, preferably from a different culture than

yours and go deep into its meaning. One of my favorites is the
Portuguese verb esperar which means both “to wait” and “to hope” –
now that’s something to ponder. Here's another: Consider the subtle
difference between the words mitigate and ameliorate. Why do you
think we have both words?

* Sapolsky, Robert M. Behave. Penguin 2017, pages

** https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30915982/ Vase L, Wartolowska K. Pain, placebo, and test of treatment efficacy: a

narrative review. Br J Anaesth. 2019 Aug;123(2):e254-e262. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2019.01.040. Epub 2019 Mar 20. PMID:
30915982; PMCID: PMC6676016.

*** Waldman and Newberg, Words Can Change Your Brain, Penguin Plume 2012, page 65, 175
4
Associations: the Good, the Bad and…
well, you know
Associations happen. We don’t usually
control them or choose them. Our
perceptions emphasize certain
associations that are recorded in memory
and “triggered” into action when we
perceive related things.

Think of men wearing skirts. There's a

good chance you're thinking of Scottish
men. Now think of the actor Mel Gibson,
who played a famous Scotsman. Are you
also thinking about his famous anti-
Semitic comments? Can you think of Mel
Gibson without thinking of anti-Semitism?

Who would have imagined you could

create direct associations between skirts
and anti-Semitism? But the associations
are there. And associations define the
context. Context defines the meaning. Meaning influences behavior and outcome.

It’s possible to deliberately create associations that can then affect our thinking. The trick is to
create an association that is strong enough to be recorded and remembered. Here are a few of
my favorite strategies for doing this:

Humor -- The brain's ability to perceive humor is one of our greatest

super-powers. Humor generally happens when we are expecting a
certain outcome to a story and we get something completely sideways.
It surprises us...and causes us to laugh. Here's a perfect example (get
ready for a sharp left turn at the end): Short Youtube Humor Video.
 Exercise: try to bring humor into the thought or idea with which you are
struggling. Ask yourself what's funny about the situation (or what can I
perceive as funny) and allow yourself to randomly associate from your
brain's Default Mode Network (i.e., let your mind wander).

Forced Association -- Science has shown that re-associating an old

memory with a new stimulation (like remembering a trauma while getting
a relaxing massage) can help people reduce the traumatic associations
connected to the memory. We can use this same idea to re-consolidate
familiar patterns of perception (beliefs) using random or unexpected
associations.

Exercise: Bring up the thought or perception you'd like to work on

(example, my repetitive relationship patterns) and then force a new,
random association by asking yourself "What would ________ suggest
to me about this?" Fill that blank with a random selection (my dog, an
extra-terrestrial, my teenage self, the Terminator, Abraham Lincoln,
etc.). The more unusual the better.

Lateral Thinking -- This is the practice of switching tracks on purpose,

by thinking outside the box or by introducing a random element, such as
a random word that must be incorporated into the thought. *

Exercise: practice lateral thinking with a friend and make it a kind of

game. Each party is tasked with introducing random words into the other
person’s thought process to disrupt the flow and force a new
association. The person receiving the random word is tasked with
incorporating it into the thought.

Practice these disruption and re-consolidation exercises and may your thoughts bring you light,
love and laughs!

* De Bono, I Am Right – You Are Wrong, Penguin 1991, page 283

5
Suspending
Belief &
Disbelief
You've heard of "suspending
disbelief" when you're watching a
science-fiction movie or reading a
fictional story? The human brain has
the ability to pretend, using a form of
abstraction, called symbolic
reasoning, which simply means giving
a meaning to something that we know
does not possess that meaning, like
pretending that a stick is actually a
sword or that putting two fingers up in
the air means peace.*

Symbolic reasoning is what allows us

to understand sarcasm and irony. It’s a form of abstraction that includes the amazing ability to
know that we’re abstracting reality (or what we agree is reality).

Suspending disbelief says “I know this is not true, but I’m going to pretend that it’s true, so I can
enjoy the experience.” When you think about it, this ability is also a form of detached
observation. “The front part of me is believing the movie, but the back part of me knows it’s not
true.”

We are all pretty familiar with suspending disbelief in order to enjoy a story, a movie, or even a
lecture. But we can also task our brains with "suspending belief," which is the same thing in
reverse. We can pretend that we don't believe something for the moment, while trying-on a new
idea. Suspending belief is a great habit to form for opening the mind to new patterns and new
information. It says, “I’m going to pretend that I don’t know what’s going on, so I can experience
this the way a novice would.” When you do this with others, it’s often called “playing dumb,” but
when you do this with yourself, it’s a form of “beginner’s mind.”

When you’ve practiced suspending belief, you’re ready to try suspending all beliefs. Instead of
accepting that anything is completely true or false, try giving each belief a probability of being
true. This means ending black-and-white thinking. When you practice this, you no longer believe
anything is 100 percent true or false. Some things might be 99.9 percent probable, while other
things may be 5 percent probable. I give that chair an 82 percent probability of not collapsing
when I sit down in it.

Is that woman wearing a blue dress with black stripes? I give that 75 percent probability. We’ve
seen how color can be interpreted differently, so perhaps we can’t be 100 percent sure we’re
seeing a blue and black dress. It might be white and gold. ** Ok, if you’re not familiar with the
cultural phenomenon of “The Dress,” just remember that we’re examining our assumptions of
truth or falsehood…and this extends to every assumption we keep, including our spiritual
beliefs, political beliefs, cultural beliefs and beliefs about ourselves. Have you examined these
beliefs and given them each a percentage of likelihood to being true or false? Have you
examined what process you’ve used to come up with a percentage of likelihood? For example,
spiritual beliefs are often based on faith in a book or authority figure while cultural beliefs are
often indoctrinated into us when we were young. Beliefs about self come from memories of past
successes and failures and these memories are often clearly connected to the belief.

Consider that many things we believe to be black and white are actually many shades of gray.
For example, we know that race is a continuum and not a distinct set of attributes. What’s the
probability that getting lots of money and power will turn a person into a narcissist? I think
there’s about a 35% chance that there’s an afterlife when we die.

And so on, with the distinct awareness that these percentages will change as you add more
context and process that data. Practice this form of “not believing anything completely” and
you’ll open your cognitive center to new ways of evaluating incoming data.

* Medina, Brain Rules, Pear Press 2014, page 6

** Wikipedia. The Dress.

6
Into the Mouth of the Dragon
We have ingenious ways of avoiding our fears. We avoid the subject. We run away. We
convince ourselves of a different truth. We hide.

Sometimes these strategies are unconscious and we have no idea we’re avoiding a fear. But
when we stop, turn around, and face our fear – or as the sages would say, enter into the mouth
of the dragon – we bring the greatest element of choice and free will to ourselves.

We generally fear the unknown, the dark path. But when we force ourselves to walk down the
dark path, we receive a great wealth of new context…context that is very likely to change
everything about certain associations
and beliefs.

What are you afraid of? What are you

avoiding? You can start looking where
you are most adamant about being
“right.” When you are right about being
right, you can be certain that you are
avoiding something in that very spot.

It’s not so difficult to track down these

fears. Just watch yourself answer these
questions…

1. Do you think it’s wise to save

money in a savings account
every time you get paid?
2. Is it important to maintain sexual
attraction between you and your
spouse?
3. Is it good to give money to
homeless people on the street?
4. Should wealthy people pay more
in taxes?
5. Should people who immigrate to
other countries integrate into the
new culture, including learning
the language?
These are charged questions that may trigger an avoidance pattern in you. And, yes, it’s
probably going to call-up the opposite of what you typically think and believe. Try combining this
challenging strategy with Strategy #3 and take a walk in the shoes of the opposite side. For
example, if you think it’s stupid to give money to homeless people on the street, start adopting
that practice by being the kind of person who does that. Start giving to people on the street and
use Strategy #1 to observe yourself.
7
Expand Your
Networks
With all this talk about brain networks,
you might be thinking the title “Expand
Your Networks” is going to be about
your brain networks.

Ok…it is. But only indirectly. I’m really

talking about your social networks.

Studies show that humans with larger

social networks tend to have increased
PFC capacity.* The implication is that
the complexity of social interactions
increases and exercises the cognitive
functions of the brain, thus expanding
our ability to withhold judgement, to
imagine the other person’s point of view,
to choose the “right” response instead of
the easy one, and so on.

So the final strategy in this book is to expand your social networks to increase the complexity of
social interactions, thus challenging your cognitive center to grow. This will give you more
choice when it comes to forming beliefs. Try expanding into a culture (social network) that is not
your own. In this way, you can combine this strategy with #6 and enter the unknown. Choose a
social network to specifically disrupt your existing cognitive bias. But if that sounds too
challenging, then any added social complexity will have a positive effect on your cognitive
powers.

*Sapolsky, Robert M. Behave. Penguin 2017, page 51, 430

Final Thoughts
Well, we may have a million influences beyond our control that are influencing our perceptions,
associations and beliefs, but we also have the ability to choose. We can prime ourselves and
we can suspend our cognitive processing of truth or falsehood. We can put ourselves in a new
environment that affects our beliefs. We can doubt our own beliefs and we can increase the
intimacy we have with an idea and expand our belief system associated with it. And we can
challenge our brains to re-consolidate memories and connections by consciously knocking
ourselves outside of the box through humor, curiosity and randomness.

Most important, we can watch our brains in action with the practice of adding a layer of
awareness to our conscious thought…especially when we are triggered into black-and-white
thinking.

Will these things give you the life you want? Best to believe it.
The Code of the Noble Spirit
What is the Noble Spirit?
It’s not something acquired with wealth. It’s not
birthright or social status. It’s not an office that puts
a person above others.
Nobility of Spirit must be earned by living according
to a Noble Code…a way of living among fellow
human beings, among all beings. It’s an ethical and
moral code that requires no leap of faith, no
fanatical belief system, no dogma.
It is a simple operating system for human behavior,
a set of guidelines for walking the Noble Path, a
personal truth that provides meaning for life.
In a world full of conflicts and contradictions, where
do we turn for guidance and wisdom?
The answer is in the still silent center within. There,
we can begin to hear the voices of our own inner
wisdom…the voices of our inner guides, the voices
of our Noble Code.

Christopher Van Buren

Author of The Code of the
Noble Spirit

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