“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Mark Twain
A belief is a conviction that is accepted and considered to be true. A faulty belief is a conviction that is either not true (a lie), or that is objectively unprovable but unhelpful or even detrimental.
It is now a proven fact that the world is round, like a ball. Astronauts have flown around and sent us pics. I believe it. That the earth is flat is a faulty belief. An unhelpful belief if I am a sailor, likely causing fear if I venture too far.
Faulty beliefs can be detrimental to our health and well-being. We now call them “cognogens.” This term is derived from the idea of a “pathogen” which refers to viruses or bacteria that cause disease. But instead of microorganisms, it refers to cognitions (thoughts and beliefs). So the contraction of the two words “cognition” and “pathogen” gives us the new word “cognogen.”
Cognogen = A belief that contributes to psychological or physical pathology.
Cognogens cause ill-health, and just like viruses and bacteria, can spread from person to person.
Here are some examples:
- I am unlovable
- I have pain and therefore I am damaged
- I am inadequately flawed and deficient
- I will never be well
- A panic attack could kill me
- I will only ever be valued for what I do
- After what was done to me, I could never forgive that person
- God doesn’t love me
How beliefs form
All beliefs start as a thought. When the thought is repeated over and over, it creates a neural pathway in the brain by connecting neurons. Remember, neurons that fire together wire together. The resulting pathway becomes embedded in the brain as a belief.
The thoughts that form your beliefs may either be based on reality (truth) or a misperception of facts or events. Throughout one’s life there are many input sources that go into the brain spawning these thoughts, starting in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. These inputs may be voices, touch, sights, and so on. Or dreams and imagination. Social media or TV. The quality and truthfulness of these inputs, and the context, will determine whether the beliefs being laid down are healthy or faulty. Most impactful are inputs from the significant others who we trust, such as parents or teachers, whether truthful or not.
Inputs in the midst of trauma are highly likely to result in faulty beliefs or cognogens.
Let’s illustrate. A five year old child hears her parents fighting, ending in separation and divorce. This is traumatic for the child and her emotional state will be in a state of fight or flight as the result of her fear. The trauma’s effect on her brain, and her immature age, prevent her from being able to accurately interpret the reality that their divorce is not her fault. Rather, it is likely that she will develop the belief that it is her fault that her parent’s marriage failed. And because she blames herself, she carries guilt and develops the shame of being flawed. Later in life, this “cognogen” might result in mental or physical illness.
Here is a list of “inputs” that influence our beliefs:
- Past events and experiences, particularly highly emotional or traumatic ones
- The family we grow up in (both through modeling or imitation and what we are taught)
- Peers
- Education (teachers, professors, employers)
- Spiritual teachers
- Culture (especially through media)
- Intuition
- Spiritual experiences
How cognogens cause illness
Recent research on the mind-body connection has unequivocally refuted the old dualism introduced by René Descartes in the 1600’s. We now know that the brain influences the physiology and health of the body through several pathways. And vice versa, the bodily organs also have nerve systems and neurotransmitters that affect the brain’s mood and health.
However, ancient sages long before the modern era wrote about becoming what you think about or believe:
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Proverbs 23:7
Belief expectation cycle
A common way in which faulty beliefs cause dis-ease in your life is through the belief expectation cycle. Just like an addiction cycle, this cycle deepens with each round and becomes a self-fulling prophecy.
This can be illustrated in a person with chronic pain that lingers well beyond the usual healing time of 6 weeks after a relatively minor muscular strain.
- Beliefs: The faulty belief is that because it hurts, there is tissue damage.
- Expectations: The expectation is that if I exercise or go back to work, I will do more damage. (In many cases, the cycle here includes a “vow” such as, “I will never _____,” or “I will always _______ .”) Vows to oneself or to others only strengthens the power of the self fulfilling prophecy.
- Behaviour: The resulting behaviour is fear and worry that only increases the stress in the muscle (what we call increased striated muscle tension).
- Results: This results in even more pain.
- Back to the top beliefs: The worsened pain only intensifies the cycle by reinforcing the faulty belief (cognogen).
Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology
The other way in which cognogens affect health and well-being is through the pathways found in this long medical word: psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology.
The word, which actually is a field of study, is made up of four terms:
- Psycho – referring to the psyche or thoughts and beliefs,
- Neuro – referring to the brain and all its nerves, often called the nervous system,
- Endocrine – referring to the the hormone systems,
- Immune = the immune system that fights infectious diseases and cancer.
The ology at the end simply means it’s a field of study.
Here is an image to demonstrate how that all fits together (mostly in your head):
Beliefs (and their precursor thoughts) originate in the outer part of the brain known as the cortex. Here messages are sent to the middle part of the brain known as the limbic system. This is generally thought of as the “emotional seat” of the brain. The common emotion that gets triggered by a cognogen (a faulty belief) is fear. This then turns on the fight or flight system (especially the adrenaline and cortisol hormones). When fear is ongoing, it affects the immune system by reducing its ability to fight infection. And ongoing fear causes increased pain and this can lead to chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia.
So, here is the perfect recipe for dis-ease.
Dr. Gabor Maté in When the Body Says No, has written excellently about the mind body connection and the effect of chronic stress often resulting from cognogens.
“My … purpose [is] to hold up a mirror to our stress-driven society so that we may recognize how, in myriad unconscious ways, we help generate the illnesses that plague us.”
Gabor Maté
How cognogens spread
What is also interesting and has been especially significant during the Covid-19 pandemic is that cognogens spread, literally, like the virus itself spreads. Take the conspiracy theories, for example.
For a fascinating read on cognogens that caused “local outbreaks” check out Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan’s book, The Sleeping Beauties. She is a UK neurologist who travelled the world to study conditions including Resignation Syndrome in Sweden and Havana Syndrome among US and Canadian diplomats stationed in Cuba. Another outbreak she explored in Columbia, South America, centred around the HPV vaccine given to a group of teenage girls who all fell ill in 2014 after a cognogen began circulating about the temperature control of the vaccine roll-out.
Breaking the cognogen cycle
Back to our self-mastery skill of learning how to refute faulty beliefs.
Because of neuroplasticity, the neural pathways that were laid down in the process of developing the faulty belief, can be reversed. That requires unlearning the faulty belief by disuse. In the brain, the neural pathways and connections that get ignored will become pruned. Remember the other well-known adage, “Use it or lose it.”
But of course, that isn’t easy. For two reasons at least: 1) it is hard to self identify the lies you have come to believe, and 2) Many are deeply rooted in trauma and therefore resistant, with probable embodiment (physical) components.
It is highly probable that you will need help both to identify your cognogens as well as help to heal the trauma at their root.
The ultimate key is to replace your faulty beliefs with their equivalent truthful ones. So, going back to our sample list above, we can create the following table:
We at IHTC offer a biblical model of refuting ungodly or harmful beliefs because we do believe that there is strong evidence for a dark force in the universe. Evolutionary social theory falls far short in explaining the incredible evil in the world such as genocide, child sexual trafficking, or terrorism. Take the Third Reich under Hitler. The cognogen that “infected” elitely educated physicians and scholars, as well as their entire armed forces, to believe that the genocide of the 6 million Jews was honourable and right is difficult to explain rationally. Evolutionary theory would predict us all to become savages (intent to destroy everyone but our own tribe), or altruistic, willing to help those outside our tribe of a different race or religion. But both exist simultaneously providing pretty strong evidence that the ancients likely had it right – there is a dark force with evil intent.
A great recommended work is Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace by John Mark Comer. He is a pastor, historian, and philosopher who has deeply researched this topic, and who also speaks eloquently in a short series of podcasts by the same name. Here is a YouTube interview with Carey Nieuwhof.
Our Encounter Retreats are a powerful and very effective events in a group setting, with trained sponsors, that help people identify and refute (or renounce) their unhealthy beliefs. Contact us if you or your group will like to host an Encounter Retreat.
Compassionately,
