儘管意識以成千上萬種方式被編程，但最有力的是我們所說的信念。信念是你緊握不放的東西，因為你認為它是真的。思想會在你的大腦中活躍地形成文字或圖像，但與思想不同的是，信念通常是沈默的。一個患有幽閉恐懼症的人不需要想，“這個房間太小了”，或者“人群中有太多人”。把他放在一個狹小擁擠的房間里，他的身體就會自動做出反應。他意識中某個地方存在一個隱藏的信念，這個信念會在用不著他思考的情況下產生所有恐懼的身體症狀。腎上腺素的流動導致他心跳加速、手心出汗、呼吸急促、頭暈，這是在比思維更深的層次上被觸發的。
Although awareness gets programmed in thousands of ways, the most convincing are what we call beliefs. A belief is something you hold on to because you think it is true. But unlike a thought, which actively forms words or images in your brain, a belief is generally silent. A person suffering from claustrophobia doesn’t need to think, “This room is too small,” or, “There are too many people in this crowd.” Put into a small, crowded room, his body reacts automatically. Somewhere in his awareness is a hidden belief that generates all the physical symptoms of fear without his having to think about it. The flow of adrenaline that causes his pounding heart, sweaty palms, panting breath, and dizziness is triggered at a level deeper than the thinking mind.
患有恐懼症的人拼命地用思想來阻撓他們的恐懼，但無濟於事。恐懼的習慣已經扎根如此之深，以至於身體記得要把它實現出來，即使頭腦在全力抵抗。幽閉恐懼症患者的想法——“我沒有理由害怕”；“小房間並不危險”；“其他人看起來都很正常，為什麼我就是克服不了這種狀況呢?”——這些都是理性的抗議，但身體會根據凌駕于思想之上的指令行事。
People with phobias struggle desperately to use thoughts to thwart their fear, but to no avail. The habit of fear has sunk so deep that the body remembers to carry it out, even when the mind is resisting with all its might. The thoughts of a claustrophobic—“There’s no reason to be afraid”; “Small rooms aren’t dangerous”; “Everyone else looks perfectly normal, why can’t I get over this?”—are rational objections, but the body acts on commands that override thought.
信念越強烈，它就越是深深扎根於身體之中，也越不受意識的控制。
The stronger the belief, the more rooted in the body it is and the more immune to conscious control.
（from Ageless Body, Timeless Mind）
弗吉尼亞·勞埃德：
潛意識被設計成自動駕駛。它最初的目的是支持自發的生理過程，如心跳、呼吸、消化、排泄等。這是為了確保，萬一有塊石頭砸在你的頭上，使你失去知覺，你的心還能繼續跳動。每個正常的嬰兒出生時都有這個自動駕駛程序，並且完好無損。從第一天起，我們就被世界和環境中的信息狂轟濫炸。要有意識地處理擺在面前的每一樣事物是一項艱巨的任務，而且新生嬰兒也沒有任何東西可以與這些信息進行比較。它沒有辦法確定某個特定的信息是否準確。因此，嬰兒只是接受了這一切，認為這是正確的，並將其重要部分編入潛意識。 這種情況會持續到生命的最初幾年。孩子從家庭成員，主要是母親、父親和兄弟姐妹，以及其他住在家裡的人那裡得到持續的輸入。那些早期的歲月是極其重要的，因為在那個時候被編入我們潛意識中的信息成為評估我們一生中接受的所有其他信息的基礎。 例如，小時候經常被稱為蠢人的人有一個幾乎無法克服的程序，使他們無法認識到自己真正的才智。即使高分和獎勵也不會改變“我真的很蠢”的固有感覺。他們經常覺得自己得到的獎勵是僥倖和不應得的。他們的想法可能是，“如果他們真的知道關於我的真相，他們就會把這個獎拿回去。”由於他們以前的編程程序，他們可能從來沒有意識到自己真的很聰明。 這說明瞭一個重要的事實：客觀現實對潛意識計算機沒有影響。潛意識計算機沒有辨別的能力，它只能按照被編入它之中的內容作出反應。
The subconscious is designed as an automatic pilot. It was originally intended to provide for the autonomic body processes such as heartbeat, respiration, digestion, elimination, and so forth. This was to ensure that, in the unhappy event that a rock should fall on your head and render you unconscious, your heart would continue beating. Every normal baby is born with this automatic pilot already programmed and intact. From day one, we are bombarded with information about our world, our environment. It is too much of a task to consciously process each item as it is presented, and a newborn baby has nothing with which to compare the information anyway. There is no way for it to determine whether a particular bit of information is accurate or not. So the infant just accepts it all as correct, and programs it, part and parcel, into the subconscious. This goes on for the first several years of life. The child gets continual input from family members, primarily mother, father and siblings, as well as any others living in the home. Those early years are extremely important because information programmed at that time becomes the basis for evaluating all other information we receive as we go through life. For example, people who are often called stupid as children have an almost insurmountable program which prevents them from recognizing their real intelligence. Even high marks and awards don't change that programmed sense of "I'm really stupid." And they often feel that the awards they've received are flukes and undeserved. Their thoughts might be, "If they really knew the truth about me, they'd take this award back." The fact that they are really brilliant might never occur to them because of their previous programming. This illustrates an important fact: Objective reality makes no difference to the subconscious computer. The subconscious computer cannot discriminate, it can only respond in accordance with what has been programmed into it
程序來自過去。一種感覺就是舊程序在當下的表現。當你陷入一種情緒時，這種機制的運作方式完全相同。一個舊程序被激活並產生一種感覺，它關閉了辨別器。然後自動駕駛接管，並根據舊程序指導這個人的行動。換句話說，一個人的行為是由過去的一個舊決定所引導的，而不是由現在的“我”感所引導的。舊程序實際上關閉了辨別器，使個人進入自動運轉狀態——執行來自過去的預先編程指令——它通過感覺來實現這一點。Programs are from the past. A feeling is the manifestation in the present of an old program. The mechanism works in exactly the same way when you're involved in an emotional feeling. An old program becomes activated and produces a feeling, which closes the discriminator. Then the automatic pilot takes over, and directs the person's actions in accordance with that old program. In other words, the person's behavior is being directed by an old decision from the past, rather than by the "I" sense in the present. The old program actually shuts down the discriminator and puts the individual on automatic —carrying out the pre-programmed directive from the past —and it accomplishes this through the feelings.
(from Master Your Emotions)
布魯斯•利普頓：
潛意識與大腦中更大一部分(大約90%)的神經活動有關，而不是與顯意識的前額皮質有關。潛意識對我們行為的影響也比顯意識更強大。顯意識的大腦前額葉皮層每秒只能處理和管理少得可憐的40次神經衝動。相比之下，構成潛意識平台的90%的大腦每秒可以處理4000萬個神經衝動。這使得潛意識的處理器比意識的處理器強大100萬倍。
The subconscious is associated with the neural activity of a much larger part of the brain (approximately 90 percent) than the conscious mind’s prefrontal cortex. The subconscious mind is also a profoundly more powerful influence on our behavior than the conscious mind. The conscious mind’s prefrontal cortex can process and manage a relatively measly 40 nerve impulses per second. In contrast, the 90 percent of the brain that constitutes the subconscious mind’s platform can process 40 millionnerve impulses per second. That makes the subconscious mind’s processor 1 milliontimes more powerful than the conscious mind’s.
在這一點上，你可能會對你強大的潛意識產生一種堅決的消極態度，這種態度正在破壞你在生活中創造蜜月效應的最大努力——遠離甜甜圈。(瑪格麗特稱之為“死亡圈”)但是潛意識在人類發展和我們的日常生活中扮演著最重要和最有價值的角色。在任何情況下，抗拒或指責潛意識都是浪費時間，就像我一口氣吃掉一個甜甜圈時想要做的那樣。這時我的顯意識就會斥責我：你這個蠢貨。你剛發誓不吃，為什麼還要吃它們?You might at this point be developing a decidedly negative attitude toward your powerful subconscious mind that is sabotaging your best efforts to create the Honeymoon Effect in your life—and to stay away from donuts. (Margaret refers to these as “circles of death.”) But the subconscious mind plays a most important and valuable role in human development and in our daily lives. In any case, it’s a waste of time to fight or blame the subconscious mind, as I’m tempted to do when I scarf down a Krispy Kreme donut. That’s when my conscious mind berates me: You stupid idiot. Why did you eat them when you just finished vowing to avoid them?
我可以隨心所欲地大喊大叫，隨心所欲地指責，但我只是在浪費時間，因為潛意識里沒有人回應我的咆哮！妖魔化你的潛意識就像對著電視尖叫一樣。你的電視機是好是壞？它既不好也不壞。你在看什麼內容？別怪電視機，要怪就怪程序吧！你的潛意識是好還是壞？它既不好也不壞。潛意識主要是一種神奇的錄制/回放裝置，與顯意識不同，它幾乎沒有創造力，也沒有時間感。它總是活在當下，也不會看未來，當你對它大喊大叫時，它當然不會聽，也不會在意！
I can yell all I want and blame all I want, but I’m wasting my time simply because there’s nobody in the subconscious mind to respond to my rant! Demonizing your subconscious mind is akin to screaming at your television. Is your television good or bad? Neither. What are you watching? Don’t blame the television set, blame the programming! Is your subconscious mind good or bad? Neither. The subconscious mind is primarily an amazing record/playback mechanism that, unlike the conscious mind, expresses little creativity and has no sense of time. It is always in the present moment, doesn’t see a future, and certainly doesn’t listen or care when you yell at it!
與其妖魔化你的潛意識或者對抗你的潛意識中令人煩惱的行為程序，不如承認它的力量。
Rather than demonizing or battling with your subconscious over its bothersome behavioral programs, it’s best to acknowledge its power.
（from The Honeymoon Effect）
