In the Christian Bible, “belief” plays a central and crucial role in healing, as well as in the performance of miracles.
We find many examples in which Jesus asks a sick person seeking to be healed the question, “Do you believe I can do this?” And only when he received the reply, “Yes, my Lord,” would he respond, “According to your belief, let it be done unto you.”
When Jesus asked Peter to get out of the boat and step into the water where Jesus was standing, Peter was able to take a few steps on the water, until he panicked and sank. Then Jesus pulled him up and said, “Oh, what little faith you have! Why did you not believe?”
But what do we mean by “belief”? There are various definitions of this word. It has been defined as “an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.” The Webster Dictionary defines it as “a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.” Belief then is “mental acceptance and conviction, of the truth, actuality or validity of something.”
For example, Jesus said, “If you have a belief as small as a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to run, and it will run,” or something to that effect.
If you believe sincerely that you will be healed of an ailment, and this belief is strong, absolute and without mental reservation, you will be healed. There are numerous examples of this, especially in alternative or complementary medical practice.
Highly rational and pragmatic people won’t believe anything unless they see or experience it. “To see is to believe.” That’s their mental attitude.
The opposite
Yet there are many occasions when the opposite is true. That is, to “to believe is to see.” Unless you believe in miracles, for example, you won’t see or experience one. This is true for almost anything else. If you don’t believe in ghosts, for instance, or in the existence of elementals, like dwarves, you will most likely not see one.
Primitive people who have no knowledge of modern airplanes may hear its sound in the sky, but will not see the plane passing by even if they are looking at it.
The story is told that when Magellan and his men came to the Pacific islands in their huge ships, the natives could see only the small boats they used to come to the shore. They asked Magellan, “How were you able to cross the big ocean using only those small boats?”
Magellan replied that they did not use the small boats in crossing the ocean, but rather the big ships anchored far from the shore, and he pointed these ships out to them.
But no matter how hard the natives tried to look at the ships, none of them could see the vessels. Only when Magellan and his men brought the natives to the big ship, and they saw up close its size, did they see the ship from the shore. They could not see the ships before because they had no idea such a thing existed.
A similar story is told about Australian aborigines’ reaction to television. When TV was first introduced to the Australian bushmen or aborigines, they could not see pictures on the screen when the TV set was turned on. The reason is not because there was something wrong with their eyes, but because these primitive people could not understand how men and women could get inside a small box and start singing and dancing.
One object they recognized was the brief appearance of a chicken on the TV show they were watching. It is because they were familiar with the sight of chickens.
Although these stories do not directly refer to belief but to lack of knowledge, the two concepts are related. You can’t believe something you do not know.