The 3 Levels Of Belief

I just landed myself a new career that pays me thrice as much as my previous one!

It’s a lengthy story but the gist of it is that I tripled my monthly income by diligently implementing an EFT experiment in a span of only 28 days, at the end of which a new career opportunity presented itself to me by way of a friend and mentor of mine making an offer to me, which I then grabbed immediately.

I was euphoric when I got back from work today as I had just signed my contract, and this euphoria somehow stimulated my creative juices to write furiously in my diary the ideas I want to reveal later in this article as I sit in the bus.

The ideas I am about to present you will give you an alternative perspective on how beliefs work and how they shape our lives, as well as an idea of how to reprogram - correction - re-prioritise them.

About 8 years ago, I read a book that was written 17 years ago. It was Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within. In it, he explained what he called The Master System and it utilised his Neuro Associative Conditioning technology.

The past few weeks, I had been re-reading this precious and immensely valuable book as I am encountering some profound shifts and transitions in my life.

8 years ago, I was only 17 years old. The experiences, setbacks, tragedies, struggles, triumphs and learning experiences I had been through over the past 8 years compounded the depth of understanding and richness of meaning I attach to the wisdom and practical insights that Tony shared in his book 17 years ago.

This was the book which triggered my interest and subsequently passion in researching the power of questions in shaping our characters and ultimately our destinies. But today there was an added dimension of understanding that I had obtained from another aspect explained in the book, and that is the power of beliefs.

As I was sitting in the bus, I was scribbling in my notebook my answers to the very basic question, “What forms a belief?”. Ultimately, close to an hour of thinking, conceptualising, philosophising and mind mapping, I found that there are actually only 2 factors that solidify any belief. What are they? I’ll tell you in a future blog post.

For now, I’ll only be discussing the 3 levels of belief and why you should know and recognise them.

When I say there are 3 levels of belief, by levels, I mean the degree, intensity or strength of a belief being held in your mind. The 3 levels, in order of lowest (weakest / merely a notion) to highest (strongest / conviction) are:-

-Information
-Observation
-Immersion

Actually, I stole this concept from another field and I want to credit that source. This concept came from Islamic theosophy (philosophy of theology or theological philosophy). Now before you think I’m about to go ‘religious’ on you, stick with me.

In theosophical terms, the 3 levels are named:-

-Ilmul Yaqin (Conviction by Knowing)
-Ainul Yaqin (Conviction by the Eye)
-Haqqul Yaqin (True Conviction)

At the 1st, most basic level, i.e. Information or ‘Conviction by Knowing’, you are merely playing with an idea or entertaining a notion. It may or may not be true, but you are willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and believe that it is true. This is the most basic level of belief. To give an example, it is like someone telling you there is a burning building about a few hundred metres in front of you.

At the 2nd level, i.e. Observation or ‘Conviction by the Eye’, you directly perceive with your sense organs the actual empirical or material confirmation of the idea to be true. This is when you finally reach the street where the burning building is situated and you see the smoke and the fire with your own eyes. This is probably about as ‘high’ a level you can get in terms of having a belief in something (and we haven’t even talked about whether the belief is an empowering one or a disempowering one).

At the 3rd and ultimate level, i.e. Immersion or ‘True Conviction’, you are completely immersed, embraced, be at one with or become the very idea that you take to be true. A continuation of the above-started metaphor might sound silly and suicidal, but this is akin to you being in the fire itself and allowing yourself to be burned by it. You become one with the fire. You are the fire.

Ideally, this is the level at which you should hold all your positive and empowering beliefs that will take you to greater and greater degrees of growth, wealth and fulfilment in your life. You become one with the belief or idea that you are free, a being with immense potential and vast capability with the ability to achieve anything you want that is rationally possible if you take the precise course of action and make the right decisions.

This leads me to draw 2 conclusions about the levels of belief:-

The more detached you become from an idea or an experience that confirms an idea, the weaker your belief in that idea.
The greater the degree of immersion and attachment in an idea or an experience that confirms an idea, the stronger your belief in that idea will be.

I drew a graph in my notebook to show the relationship between level of conviction and degree of immersion. Perhaps I’ll post it here next time I am able to.

Now how do we take an ideal, positive belief about ourselves to the highest level possible (i.e. Immersion)?

Simple. It requires knowledge and implementation of the 2 factors I described earlier that solidify any belief we want to hold in our minds. I’ll further elaborate on this in my blog, Ultimate Secrets of Success.