Picture Courtesy: https://www.calmsage.com/how-to-control-negative-thoughts/
Believing in one has both positive and negative impacts.
In this writing, I'm sharing two incidents that happened because of believing in others:-
The good impact(s):-
We 'people' don't have any proof of whether ghosts and spirits exist. But still, we have been told from a young age about ghost stories, myths and legends. We have developed thoughts upon that, and when we go into the dark or walk alone in a quiet place, we feel scared.
We sometimes feel like someone's there other than a human being watching over us. I turn my head here and there when I walk alone because people have made a habit of spreading negative beliefs, which has impacted me. And that can further lead to disasters.
Sometimes, some people see unusual things and images that we can't see due to psychological reasons or due to a lack of courage and also due to the feeling of fear. They think that ghosts and spirits are roaming around them, and to overcome this problem, they visit temples and take the blessings of gods and spiritual leaders, which makes them feel better and consolidated.
After offering worship to their deities, people believe the ghosts or spirits have left them. Many psychological problems develop in our minds due to believing in unreal and unseen things and images. Making people do activities like visiting the temple and doing some mental activities helps one to overcome these things, but believing is the most important thing.
So, 'believing' has both negative and positive results.
The negative impacts which arise due to believing:-
In this case, I want to share an incident. The incident took place near my Village in Arunachal Pradesh. There are many tribal people in Arunachal, and most of them are really into religious beliefs and rituals.
I am a Buddhist by religion, and the incident is from the Buddhist committee. In our villages and nearby villages, we have a monk in each who can see the past life of a newborn child by performing rituals.
One such thing happened when a lady gave birth to a child. The child had two grown teeth, which seemed very strange and even scary to people. When the monk was called upon to look into this matter, he clearly stated that a ghost had been born in human form. And that it was a sign of bad luck. With that statement, the poor lady with her child and husband was sentenced to a lifetime exile.
How can people believe some spiritual leaders so blindly that they are even ready to agree and declare a newborn child a ghost or monster just because of some disabilities and natural teeth? Whereas science says that it's nothing but just a rare case and the mother who gave birth to the child must be proud and happy that her child is rare.
She really should be happy with herself rather than listening to the stupid shitty things of people who called her child a ghost or a monster just because they had never seen this thing before.
Therefore, I would conclude my writing by saying that we must look beyond the things that appear. We people don't look at things how they are but look at them how we think about them. That's why education is a necessity.
Moreover, acquiring knowledge and looking for a positive outcome in a strangely difficult situation is most important.
Tenzin Jambey
Pestalozzi Children's Village, India.