E183 - Nir Eyal: How Your Beliefs Shape What You See (And Hold You Back)

Nir Eyal joins the podcast to explore one of the most foundational forces shaping our lives: belief. What if the way you see reality isn’t reality itself, but a simulation filtered through prior assumptions, expectations, and unconscious scripts?

In this conversation, we unpack the difference between fact, faith, and belief—and why most of our suffering stems from confusing the three. Nir shares powerful research on predictive processing, placebo and nocebo effects, learned helplessness, and how our expectations literally alter what we see, feel, and experience in our bodies.

From secular prayer and gratitude practices to Byron Katie’s turnaround method, this episode is a deep dive into how to move from limiting beliefs to liberating ones. If beliefs are tools, then the real question becomes: are the ones you’re using serving you?

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3/10 Book release: http://geni.us/beyondbelief

André's Book Recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list

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00:00 Intro

01:35 The Difference Between Fact, Faith, and Belief

05:36 Illusions of Reality

07:29 The Core of Our Perception

15:52 Where to Start Enacting Change on Your Life

19:53 Beliefs as Tools, Not Truths

25:28 Ad: Nord VPN

26:32 The Cosmic Slot Machine

37:39 Spotting Your Limiting Beliefs

46:39 The Prison of Our Own Making

51:33 Why We Perceive Threats Everywhere

1:00:18 Becoming Indistractable

1:12:57 What Attention Means Today versus the Past

1:26:44 The Motivation Triangle

1:32:00 Closing Thoughts

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Episode Resources:

https://www.instagram.com/neyal99

https://nir.substack.com/

https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/

https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/

https://www.youtube.com/@knowthyselfpodcast

https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com