Thought Viruses

“It hurts when I think about it” is a familiar sentence one hears from a person suffering from pain. Even though, just before that specific thought the person might not be feeling any pain at all.

Why is it that thinking about pain causes it to resurface? The answer to that question might lie in Thought Viruses.

Thought Viruses have been defined in many ways. A while ago I read a book titled “Thought Viruses” by Donald Lofland. In it, he stated that thought viruses are unconscious thought patterns that distort our thinking and perception of the world. Some call it to be a limiting belief. Nevertheless all definitions are similar in that Thought Viruses affect our thinking in many ways. 

Among the many types there are some that arise commonly:

• Viruses arising from the linkage of thoughts with emotionally charged memories. An unfortunate traumatic experience with spiders might result in arachnophobia(fear of spiders
• Viruses related to negative beliefs such as “I will never be as smart as my older brother.”
• Viruses caused by conflicting thoughts. “A part of me wants to work for the test tomorrow while a part of  me wants to sleep early so that I am well rested for tomorrow’s test.” Both thoughts conflict with each other while both of them have a positive intent.
• A combination of the above three. Common symptoms are known collectively as stress although violent and destructive behaviors may also arise.

The mind and body are interrelated to a greater extent than we realize. Similar to biological and computer viruses, thought viruses slide into the mind unknowingly coloring our thinking negatively. This negative thinking may manifest itself physically in some cases. Statistically, stress is known to be related to an extremely large number of illnesses that, in severe cases, can be lethal. But what causes stress? A Greek Stoic Philosopher, Epictetus, implies viewpoint.

“Man is not disturbed by things, but by the views he takes of them” – (Epictetus, 120 AD)

And if this viewpoint has been distorted and colored unknowingly by thought viruses, then life may be very stressful.

I realized that nearly everyone, including myself, is in some way affected by thought viruses. Whenever I encounter a stray dog moving towards me on the streets, all my muscles immediately tense up as my mind unconsciously links this dog to the memory of the one that almost bit me when I was young. I did not know that I was a victim of a thought virus until I had read the book. Aside from that, I found that there are a lot of viruses ingrained into the society such as: