Jimmy Henderson (MA psychology, FRC)
It is often believed
that our thoughts can attract favourable or unfavourable life-experiences and
circumstances into our lives. This idea is given a mystical or magical tone in
many spiritual publications. However, this can also be explained in psychology as a
‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, which occurs when our beliefs (especially about ourselves),
result in attitudes and actions which draw us precisely to those things we
desperately seek to avoid.
For example, consider a young man
who was humiliated by his friends as a child and entered adulthood with major
insecurities. He will now, in all likelihood, entertain ideas such as ‘I am not
popular’, ‘I never get invited to parties, ‘I may just as well stay home’, and
so on. The problem is that these beliefs eventually filter into his
subconscious and become ‘schemas’ or ‘scripts’ which shape his social behavior.
In other words, as a result of these beliefs, he now projects a total lack of
self-confidence and is unwilling to involve himself in social activities. This
is noticed by others (especially women), who eventually start to disengage from
him and he is no longer invited to social events, which only further reinforces
his deeply-held belief that he is unpopular. His negative beliefs about himself
have now become a self-fulfilling-prophecy.
Fortunately, this same type of programming,
if used correctly, can become positive and help to manifest one’s desired
reality. In other words, it is partially true that we can improve our chances
for success simply by removing our negative self-beliefs, but it is probably a
bit more complicated than this, as there are always other factors involved that need attention,
such as our personalities, attitudes, and motivations, as well as the realities
of our personal, home and work situations.
Jimmy Henderson is a cognitive scientiist and metaphysician who combines psychological research with metaphysical principles. His books are available on Amazon.com or through his website www.jimmyhendersonbooks.com
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