The Power of Belief

A young woman in one of my English classes was wearing a light blue crystal that was wrapped in a metallic spiral and that hung from a necklace. When I asked her about the unique piece of jewelry, she told me that it was an aqua aura crystal. When I googled the term, I learned that it's a psychic energy crystal, used to enhance a person's clairvoyance and telepathy, as well as to ward off psychic or telepathic attacks. I, like many people, find myself skeptical about the effectiveness of such things. I don't really believe in auras or psychic energy. There may be more to it than I suspect there is, but the real power behind those crystals is, in my opinion, the power of belief.

I almost said "the power of faith," but that wouldn't quite be accurate. Faith is a belief in things that are not seen that are true (Alma 32:21). The power of belief works even if the thing believed in isn't true. The power of belief is responsible for the healing power of sugar pills. A while back, I blogged about Dove's Beauty Patches, and commented that I wouldn't mind getting some "Awesome Patches," even though none of those patches did or would do anything beyond giving the wearer something to believe in. The women who participated in the beauty patch trial experiment said that they could feel the beauty patches working. Perhaps aqua aura crystals work the same way.

Still, I think that the power of belief is less potent than the power of faith, with the difference being that the power of faith is derived from the belief in something that is actually true. A belief in God is going to help you more than a belief in psychic energy, and a belief in your identity as a daughter or son of God will do more to improve your self-image than a beauty patch would.

Yet, how arrogant must I be to say that? How arrogant is it to say that psychic energy only works (if/when it actually works) because people believe that it works, while faith in God works miracles because God is real? How arrogant is it to say that the things that I believe in are true while things others believe in are false? I don't want to be arrogant. And, to be honest, I can't really say that psychic energy doesn't work. Maybe it does. Maybe it works just because people believe that it does, or maybe it works because of scientific or mystical reasons I don't yet understand, or maybe it doesn't work at all. I have little experience with it, so I can't really say.

But what I can say is that faith works. My belief in God has helped me in ways that I can't describe. Maybe that was just the power of belief, but I don't think so. I think that God actually exists and that He actually does work miracles in the lives of those who have faith in Him. It could be that God also created psychic energy crystals and that people really do have chakras and auras in addition to spirits and souls. Our beliefs aren't mutually exclusive. Maybe we're both right. And even if there's nothing real behind mystic energy, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with wearing an aqua aura pendant. It may not be magical, but it could still have positive effects on you if you believe that it will. Dove's Beauty Patches worked, despite Dove admitting that there was nothing special about them. I believe that the power of belief can be a strong thing, even if the thing you believe in isn't entirely true.