Time For A Belief System Revolution?

You know,  one of the things I love about living in Turkey is the crazy beliefs and superstitions people have. Superstitions in this part of the world range from ordinary old wives tales to some really bizaare stuff and actually pay homage to the regions rich cultural history. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Anatolian history, the first Anatolians were a nomadic shamanistic culture, much like the American Indians or Australian aboriginals. It follows then that these people had some very strong magic traditions and their belief system was based on this.

There are also the beliefs and superstitions which were influenced by Greek and pagan mythology and others, such as the belief in djinns, which were taken from Islam itself.

Even the treatment of one’s toenails is the basis of superstition. You probably wouldn’t have thought that toenails are such an important part of the anatomy but a lot of weight is placed on what is done with them. You apparently mustn’t cut them at night because this will bring all manner of catastrophy into your household. Cutting in conjunction with your fingernails is to be avoided at all costs as any lucky event that may happen in the near future will surely be clouded by an unlucky event.

The Turkish Ministry of Culture’s website has a few more unlikely examples, such as:

• If a cat turns towards Mecca and scratches its head with its forelegs, it will rain
• Anyone peeing outside at night will be paralyzed by pixies
• If you throw hair from a comb into the street and that hair becomes entangled in the legs of a chicken, you may suffer a continual headache

Obviously Turkish people don’t believe these things anymore but my point is that at one time, according to the Ministry’s official research at least, they did. Why? Because like all very early civilisations, the need to explain events happening around them caused them to find some pretty tenuous links between things and form beliefs according to those links.

Like in other Mediterranean and middle eastern cultures, belief in the ‘evil eye’ (Nazar in Turkish) is still common these days, not just with old village women, but with educated urbanites as well. According to this belief, bad intentions or negative energy can be passed from one person to another simply through thought patterns. Interestingly enough, while I’m not particularly convinced by this, it is a little closer to what modern quantum physicists talk about with their ‘thoughts become matter’ theories.

Here’s where it becomes interesting. I have often argued with people regarding the wearing of talismans to ‘ward off’ the evil eye. I simply have no need to wear such a thing because I don’t believe in it. In fact the wearing of such a talisman would only make me more susceptible, as wearing one constantly shows a certain level of fear and expectation of other people’s bad intentions which would certainly only attract negative energy not repel it. If I have the belief that people are basically good and don’t intentionally do harm to others, then this belief would protect me more than what a blue-eyed talisman would.

Anyway, I guess the point I’m trying to make is that over the ages, we have developed some weird, wonderful and even some downright negative and damaging beliefs about people and the world around us, many of which affect us on a sub-conscious level and escape our awareness. This is dangerous because these ingrained beliefs are what shapes the world around us and we are not even aware of it.

We live in a time when it has become imperative to re-evaluate our belief systems and develop a system which is more in line with the universal sub-conscious. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone believed that people were basically good, that there is enough food and money in the world for everybody or that we can fix our body’s ailments anytime we choose.

I vote for a belief system Revolution starting from today because I can tell you one thing for sure, I’m getting tired of checking which direction my cat’s head is pointing every time it decides to scratch.