Believing is with the Whole Body
Here, Bruce Di Marsico discusses that, since the mind-body split is mythical, beliefs are always held with and as the whole body.
Beliefs aren’t just a mental set, an intellectual construct. When we turn something into a belief, it doesn’t just exist as some kind of a logos in the brain but it exists throughout the whole body as an act, which the body can manifest. A belief is not in the so-called brain; a belief is in the mind and the mind is between the top of the scalp and the bottom of the soles of the feet. The whole idea that your mind is in your head is archaic. Believing is believing with the whole body.
From January 28, 1974 lecture
Although a belief may not ever have been expressed in words or recognized as a personally held assumption, it is nonetheless held in at least a non-verbal way and in all other psycho-physical ways as an aspect of the person, which we refer to as “the personality”.
From Writing: “The Cause of Unhappiness”
Emotions and feeling bad are attitudes. Attitudes are bodily stances—they’re the way we hold ourselves in the world.
From November 11, 1995 Lecture
The Body, in itself, is Happy
Here, Bruce Di Marsico discusses that the body, in itself, is perfectly happy. Every belief about how the body should be is both experienced as unhappiness, and impedes the well-being of the body.
This does not imply that a happy person will necessarily have a well-functioning body by general cultural standards, but rather that a happy person’s body will function as well as it possibly can, and be as comfortable as possible, even in the context of an illness or injury.
To wonder if some manifestation of your body (pain, pus, puke or perspiration) could be caused by unhappiness is the belief that unhappiness can happen to you.
From Writing: “All Unhappy Beliefs are Derived”
Believing is with the body in a certain way. It is actually a destruction of the body. Believing always manifests itself in the body as some kind of a problem, as something uncomfortable. So, the more we believe, the less of our body we will have, and so every belief is a hole in the body. It is a void in the mind because it implies a not being yet. If I believe something about myself, I am saying I am not being something yet that I want to be.
From January 28, 1974 lecture
What we call the experience of feeling happy is the physical phenomena of the body functioning undisturbed by our beliefs in unhappiness. Whatever causes us to desire happiness would of necessity cause also the desire to sustain whatever function is the feeling of happiness. Certainly, life, in some sense, is part of our experience of happiness. When happy, we feel alive.
From Writing: “What every Option therapist knows”
“You” and “Your Body”
Here, Bruce Di Marsico addresses the myth of the mind-body split in more detail, discussing how unhappy beliefs are the cause of this apparent split.
The will is the name of the relationship between mind and “body”. The will is the relationship between beliefs and behavior. The will is the process, the act of manifesting, what is unseen but real. The will would not even seem to exist were it not for a disparity (or apparent disparity) between the desire of the heart and the behavior of the body.
From Writing: “The Will”
Why would I want to believe I should do something? It’s really only another way of saying I don’t want to. If we really believe we should do something, you know psychologically what happens in our bodies? Our bodies believe us, and start acting like we don’t want to do it, because what you’ve told your body is “I wouldn’t want to do this in a million years, I just think I should.” And your body says, okay, and now acts like you wouldn’t want to do it in a million years.
So once you believe you should go on a diet, you should lose weight, gain weight, anything else. Forget it. Your body will obey you. We’ve got this “unfortunate” relationship with our body: it believes us, and anything we believe, it believes. And if we believe we should do something, we have effectively taught ourselves that we don’t want to.
From November 11, 1995 Lecture