The relationship between belief and knowledge is subtle. Believers in a claim typically say that they know that claim. For instance, those who believe that the Sun is a god will often report that they know that the Sun is a god. However, the terms belief and knowledge are used differently by philosophers. It is a telling point concerning the nature of belief that most people distinguish between what they know and what they believe, even though they consider both kinds of statements to be true.

Mainstream psychology and related disciplines have traditionally treated belief as if it were the simplest form of mental representation and therefore one of the building blocks of conscious thought. Philosophers have tended to be more abstract in their analysis and much of the work examining the viability of the belief concept stems from philosophical analysis.

Beliefs are sometimes divided into core beliefs (those which you may be actively thinking about) and dispositional beliefs (those which you may ascribe to but have never previously thought about). For example, if asked “do you believe tigers wear pink pajamas?’” a person might answer that they do not, despite the fact they may never have thought about this situation before.

That a belief is a mental state has been seen by some as contentious. While some philosophers have argued that beliefs are represented in the mind as sentence-like constructs, others have gone as far as arguing that there is no consistent or coherent mental representation that underlies our common use of the belief concept and that it is therefore obsolete and should be rejected.

Beliefs form in a variety of ways. We tend to internalize the beliefs of the people around us. Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said that “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” Political beliefs depend most strongly on the political beliefs common in the community where we live. Most individuals believe the religion they were taught in childhood.

People may adopt the beliefs of a charismatic leader, even if those beliefs fly in the face of all previous beliefs and produce actions that are clearly not in their own self-interest. Rational individuals need to reconcile their direct reality with any said belief. Therefore, if belief is not present or possible, it reflects the fact that contradictions were necessarily overcome using cognitive dissonance.

The primary thrust of the advertising industry is that repetition forms beliefs, as do associations of beliefs with images of sex, love, and other strong positive emotions. Physical trauma, especially to the head, can also radically alter a person’s beliefs.

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, the White Queen says, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” This is often quoted in mockery of the common ability of people to entertain beliefs contrary to fact.

An epiphany is the sudden realization or comprehension of the larger essence or meaning of something. The term is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture, or has new information or experience, often insignificant by itself, that illuminates a deeper or numinous foundational frame of reference.

Epiphanies of sudden comprehension have also made possible forward leaps in technology and the sciences. Famous epiphanies include Archimedes’ realisation of how to estimate the volume of a given mass, which inspired him to shout “Eureka!” (I have found it!). The biographies of many mathematicians and scientists include an epiphanic episode early in the career, the ramifications of which were worked out in detail over the following years. For example, Albert Einstein was struck as a young child by being given a compass and realising that some unseen force in space was making it move. An example of a flash of holistic understanding in a prepared mind was Charles Darwin’s hunch about natural selection during The Voyage of the Beagle.

To this day in traditional and pre-modern cultures, initiation rites and mystery religions have served as vehicles of epiphany, as well as the arts. The Greek dramatists and poets would induct the audience into states of catharsis or kenosis, respectively. In modern times an epiphany lies behind the title of William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, a state as Burroughs explained, “a frozen moment when everyone sees what is at the end of the fork.” Both the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp and the Pop Artist Andy Warhol would invert expectations by presenting commonplace objects or graphics as works of fine art, simply by presenting them in a way no one had thought to do before. The result was intended to induce an epiphany of what art is or is not.

The word “Zen” is sometimes used as a verb in the same sense as epiphany, to mean acquiring a sudden comprehension. Zen is similar to grokking, which is to share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity, as Robert A. Heinlein coined the term in Stranger in a Strange Land. The Zen term kensho would more accurately describe this moment, referring as kensho does, to the feeling attendant on realising, for example, the answer to the question set by a koan.

Albert Einstein was a famous theoretical physicist. His brain was removed within seven hours of his death and has attracted attention because of his reputation for being one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th century. Apparent regularities or irregularities in the brain have been used to support various ideas about correlations in neuroanatomy with exceptional intelligence. Scientific studies have suggested that regions involved in speech and language are smaller, while regions involved with numerical and spatial processing are larger.

In the 1980s, University of California professor Marian Diamond persuaded Thomas Harvey to give her samples of Einstein’s brain. She compared the ratio of glial cells in Einstein’s brain with that in the preserved brains of 11 men. Glial cells provide support and nutrition in the brain, form myelin, and participate in signal transmission. Diamond and Joseph Altman had already both discovered that rats with enriched environments developed more glial cells for each neuron. Rats in impoverished environments had fewer glial cells relative for each neuron.

Dr. Diamond’s laboratory made thin sections of Einstein’s brain, each 6 micrometers thick. They then used a microscope to count the cells. Einstein’s brain had more glial cells relative to neurons in all areas studied, but only in the left inferior parietal area was the difference statistically significant. This area is part of the association cortex, regions of the brain responsible for incorporating and synthesizing information from multiple other brain regions. 

In 1999, analysis by a team at McMaster University revealed that Einstein’s parietal operculum region in the frontal lobe of the brain was vacant. One notable part of the operculum is Broca’s area, which plays a key role in conversation or speech production, reading and writing. To compensate, the inferior parietal lobe was 15 percent wider than normal. The inferior parietal region is responsible for mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition, and imagery of movement.

Also absent was part of a bordering region called the lateral sulcus. Researchers speculated that the vacancy may have enabled neurons in this part of his brain to communicate better. This unusual brain anatomy may explain why Einstein thought the way he did.

It should be noted that this study was based on photographs of Einstein’s brain made in 1955 by Dr. Harvey, and not direct examination of the brain. Einstein himself claimed that he thought through images rather than verbally. Professor Laurie Hall of Cambridge University commenting on the study, said, “So far the case isn’t proven, but magnetic resonance and other new technologies are allowing us to start to probe those very questions”.

Einstein was speculated to have Asperger’s Syndrome. The condition is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behavior, activities and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition.

In many mystical traditions, the conscious mind is seen as a separate entity, existing in a realm not described by physical law. Some people claim that this idea gains support from the description of the physical world provided by quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the atomic scale, such as electrons, protons and other subatomic particles. Quantum theory generalizes classical mechanics to provide accurate descriptions for many previously unexplained phenomena. The effects of quantum mechanics become evident at the atomic and subatomic level, and they are typically not observable on macroscopic scales.

Quantum mysticism is the claim that the laws of quantum mechanics incorporate mystical ideas similar to those found in certain religious traditions and beliefs. It is descended from the measurement problem, the seemingly special role which observers play in quantum mechanics. The term quantum mysticism is often used by skeptical scientists to discount the idea that quantum theory supports mystical beliefs.

Quantum mechanics requires interpretation before it describes the experience of an observer. While particles and fields are described by a wavefunction, the results of observations are described by classical information which tells us the result. The information about observation is not in the wavefunction but is additional random data. The wavefunction only gives the probability of getting different outcomes, and the wavefunction only turns into a probability when it is measured.

The nature of observation has often been a point of contention in quantum mechanics because it describes the experiences of observers with different numbers than it uses to describe material objects. With the exception of Louis DeBroglie and Albert Einstein, who believed that quantum mechanics was a statistical approximation to a deeper reality which is deterministic, most of the founders of quantum mechanics believed that this problem is purely philosophical. Eugene Wigner went further, and explicitly identified it as a quantum version of the mind/body problem.

Consciousness causes collapse is the name of an interpretation of quantum mechanics according to which observation by a conscious observer is the cause of wave function collapse. The rules of quantum mechanics are correct but there is only one system which may be treated with quantum mechanics, namely the entire material world. There exist external observers which cannot be treated within quantum mechanics, namely human (and perhaps animal) minds, which perform measurements on the brain causing wave function collapse.

This interpretation attributes the process of wave function collapse to consciousness itself. However, it is not explained by this theory which things have sufficient consciousness to collapse the wave function. The question becomes one of whether the wave function waited to jump for thousands of millions of years until a single celled living creature appeared, or did it have to wait a little longer for some highly qualified measurer with a PhD. It is also not clear whether measuring devices might also be considered conscious.

Recent study of quantum decoherence casts new light onto the problem by reducing the importance of the macroscopic observer originally introduced in the language of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory. Modern scientific discourse has evolved to try to quantify how quantum systems fall apart due to their interactions with the surroundings. In this manner a unified view of all quantum interactions can be developed that treats neighboring quantum systems on the same footing.

These counterintuitive aspects of quantum physics were popularized in the 1970s with Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics, in which he explores the parallels between quantum physics and principles in Eastern mystical teachings. This was taken up in the 1980s by Hindutva pseudoscience, which extrapolated on the statements of Vivekananda, claiming that the conclusions of modern science are the very conclusions the Vedanta reached ages ago. It joined together concepts from physics like gravitation, electricity, magnetism and other forces with the mystical Vedantic notion of Prana.

Similarly, the 2004 film What the Bleep Do We Know!? made controversial use of ideas about quantum mechanics, among other sciences, in a New Age context. Theories of Quantum mind have given rise to concepts like Quantum meditation, positing a scientific basis for meditation practices not supported by mainstream science.

In 1998 Deepak Chopra was awarded the parody Nobel Prize in physics for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He received this honor for such writing that Quantum healing is healing the body and mind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy. Quantum healing involves a shift in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction in an idea that has gone wrong. So quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness, body.

Sometimes I think about what it would be like to envision what I’m doing as though it were happening in fast motion. Like one of those stop action movies where everything was recorded at one frame per minute then played back at regular speed. I imagine myself waking up, running around all over the place and going back to bed in three seconds, an entire day in an instant.

Essentially, this is what an entire life is. In the grand scheme of the things, it’s a fast motion movie. All the things that were ever experienced, relative to the infinity of the universe, are instant. Every movement, thought and accomplishment is a small blip on the radar. This lends an insignificance to life and makes one realize the true nature of our selves, that we are not existing in time, but that time is existing in us.

This illusory sense of self is what Albert Einstein, who had deep insights not only in to the reality of space and time but also into human nature, referred to as an optical illusion of consciousness. That illusory self then becomes the basis for all further interpretations, or rather misinterpretations of reality, all thought processes, interactions, and relationships. Reality becomes a reflection of the original illusion. 

Time is a mind structure needed for sensory perception and is indispensable for practical purposes, but the greatest hindrance to knowing the self. Time is the horizontal dimension of life, the surface layer of reality. Then there is the vertical dimension of depth, accessible to you only through the portal of the present moment. The elimination of time from consciousness is the elimination of ego and is the only true spiritual practice.

When we speak of the elimination of time we are not referring to clock time, which is the use of time for practical purposes, such as making an appointment or planning a trip. It would be almost impossible to function in this world without clock time. What we are speaking of is the elimination of psychological time, which is the endless preoccupation of the mind with past and future and its unwillingness to be one with life by living in alignment with the inevitable beauty of the present moment.

Whenever a habitual no turns into a yes, whenever we allow the moment to be as it is, we dissolve time as well as ego. For the ego to survive, it must make past and future more important than the present moment. The ego cannot tolerate becoming friendly with the present moment except briefly just after it got what it wants. But nothing can satisfy the ego for long. As long as it runs our lives there are two ways of being unhappy. Not getting what we want is one, getting we you want is the other.

Whatever is or happens is the form that the life takes. As long as we resist it, the world is an impenetrable barrier that separates us from who we are beyond form, separates us from the formless singularity that we are. When we bring an inner yes to the form the moment presents to us, that very form becomes a doorway into the formless. The separation between the world and God dissolves.