[Neurons] 2025 Neurons #41 BELIEF THINKING

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2025 Neurons #41

October 13, 2025

 

BELIEF THINKING

 

After you first begin to think about something, representing whatever you
are referring to, you next do belief thinking.  Now you are taking something
on faith.  Yet actually, everything you think is an act of faith.  Even in
perceiving, you are trusting (believing) in your eyes, ears, skin, etc. and
assuming that you are not suffering from a visual illusion or any other
kind.  

 

Yet above perception, not only does taking things on faith is the governing
principle of human information process, every second thought is a belief.
In Neuro-Semantics since 1996 we have identified the structure of a belief
as a confirmed thought about your first thought.  What I'm here revealing
that is new is this: every multi-level thought structurally is a belief.
Take any initial thought or idea, then think something else about it.  Now
you have a second thought- a thought about your first thought.  Accordingly,
as the second thought accepts the first as given, it thereby creates a
belief.  It creates one of a great many different kinds of beliefs.  

 

As the second thought reflects on the first thought, it thereby assumes its
reality as it brings additional understandings to it.  This creates what we
call meta-levels- values, identity, decision, understanding, memory,
imagination, etc.  You may value it.  You may permit it.  You may remember
things that support it.  Whatever response you make to the initial thought,
the implication is that you are assuming that the first thought is true or
real.  A decision is a belief about what to chose.  A value is a belief
about what you think is important. A permission is a belief that the thought
is acceptable.

 

What does this mean?  It means that believing is a rich multi-layer thought
that includes a primary thought and at least one higher thought.  In that
way, every belief we create makes our thinking about something richer and
fuller conceptually.  We can also create a belief system -a system of
beliefs in which the next higher belief holds the previous levels in place.
When this is fully developed, we construct a concept or philosophy- a
philosophical understanding of something- of life, of yourself as a person,
of your purpose, of your career, etc.

 

You can now also realize that believing is what you do with and to your
perceptions.  Primary thoughts are the data; believing is what you do with
that data.  Beliefs turn data into what you know, into knowledge-and what
you know defines what you can do and how you experience yourself.  In
believing you enrich your perceptions and as a result, you can thereafter
literally see your beliefs in the external world.  This also means that
everything that in the Meta Place is actually a belief.

 

Beliefs-because we treat them as true- we then respond to our beliefs as
rules to live by, as our governing principles, as explanatory frames about
life.   What you believe operates as your personal the rules of life that
you live by.  Every area of life operates by beliefs.

To only or merely think-your consciousness would be a continue stream
without ever holding anything in mind.  To hold anything in mind, you have
to classify it with a second thought.  At the first level, thinking is
passive.  Only at the second level does thinking become active.  

 

By thinking about your thinking -you classify it-give it meaning, to wit,
you confirm it as a thought to keep.  Saying "yes this thought is..." some
meta-level classification, a value, a decision, a memory, a permission, etc.
you confirm it as special as something to hang on to.   In so keeping your
thought, you build up a collection of kept thoughts which then make up your
inner world, your map of the world, the way you understand the world.

 

This also describes your belief hierarchy.  At the first level of the
hierarchy your belief is conscious.  At the second and the levels above
it-your beliefs will be mostly unconscious.  They reside in your hidden
(unconscious) mind.  These include every kind of belief: Identity beliefs,
cultural beliefs, business beliefs, conceptual beliefs, metaphorical
beliefs, philosophical beliefs, explanation belief (understanding), and the
list goes on and on.

 

It's Beliefs all the Way Up 

We now know what is inside your mind- beliefs.  You are a believer and the
beliefs you believe -you determine that.  The bottom line: you have two
kinds of thoughts.  You have primary level thoughts (perceptions) and
secondary level thoughts (beliefs).  Now the nature of a belief is that it
is self-fulfilling.  What you believe is basically what you get.  Beliefs
are self-sealing.  To do that your belief relies on the confirmation bias so
that what you believe, you will find or invent evidence for it.  That
normally makes beliefs difficult to change.  But now that you know this
structure of beliefs (this meta-structure), you have a heads up on several
great belief changing techniques.

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

 



L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, ISNS

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

meta at acsol.net

 

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