Power of Belief - Speaking on the Berlin Wall

The greatest speakers that I have ever seen were in East Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thousands of people were risking their lives to march on the Stasi Secret Police headquarters around the city and were ransacking the arsenals of weapons and secret files they found inside. Every evening the demonstrators would converge in hundreds of thousand on Alexandraplatz, a huge square in the city center. Spontaneously, hundreds of small meetings would break out around the square. People would get up on boxes and trumpet their opinions to the groups of 20-30 listeners gathered around them. No sooner had one person finished, than another was pushing forward to take the tribune. People would spend hours floating from one gathering to another, listening or getting up and speaking themselves.

The subjects spanned all conceivable issues connected to the current events – the plans of the Stalinist secret police and army, the role of the Soviet Union, for and against reunification with West Germany, the pros and cons of capitalism, could they have socialism and democracy, etc, etc. Hardly any of these speakers came form political or social organizations – most were banned or were at best fledgling. Instead, these speakers were ordinary folk - nurses, bus drivers, bank employees, shop assistants, students, engineers, etc. They had no training or experience in public speaking or presenting, indeed, they had no experience in speaking freely at all. Even on a conversational level they had been afraid of speaking their opinions freely within their own families, fearing even that a brother or sister might betray them to the Stasi. Unless you believe in what you are saying, nobody else will believe you. Even the conman succeeds because of his belief in himself and his self-justification of his trickery. Secondly, without belief you will never move people, never convince them or gain their support and trust.

Whatever subject you are speaking on, the subliminal message and the subconscious mind plays a greater role in our decision-making process of an audience than most of us rational, logical people would like to admit. We sense and feel things on a subconscious level, which then provides nebulous information which influences the rational brain, especially when it concerns issues affecting our well-being and interests. When we sense subconsciously that a speaker lacks confidence in themselves and their subject, our confidence in the logic of the arguments provided is undermined. We can sometimes even reject what appears rational without being able to verbalize our reasoning for our opposition. Of course this all depends on the concrete situation, but it is a fact of life and speaking without belief, at best, undermines your argument and, at worst, destroys it.

Unless you believe in yourself and your subject, you will betray yourself in your voice, body language and style. Without belief you will feel awkward, unsure, self-conscious and vulnerable. People may not be able to articulate it, but they sense this at a subliminal level and your arguments, however logical, will be undermined by the aura surrounding your words. Your message will appear incongruent with your manner, mood, demeanor, facial expressions, arm movements and the character of your voice.

Yet when they stood on those soap boxes, it was as though they had been orators all their lives. You couldn’t fault their body language, their voice variation or any other of the styles and techniques taught in presentation skills courses. Nervousness existed, but was quickly consumed by passion, belief, a sense of urgency and historical importance. It was a glorious spectacle - all inhibitions gone, swept away by revolution, the human type stood up in its most animated form and proclaimed “I matter, I control my destiny, I am life and I can shape the future”.

The experience taught me that everyone can speak in public, if the circumstances demand it of them. It is not something that belongs to just a privileged few, but is an innate ability which is buried deep within all of us and can be accessed in times of need. You need to feel the need to express yourself, to realize that your voice is important and has a right to be heard. Vocal self-expression is after all a unique and differentiating feature of our species. It is our birthright.

What was the defining factor in East Berlin? Belief, above all else. The people believed in what they were saying and their right to say it. It was belief which animated them and which they used to propel themselves to destroy the old regime and shape history. Once belief gripped them, all barriers to self-expression came crashing down and so did the Berlin Wall.

Belief, on the other hand is the great universal synthesizer. It breaks down the psychological barriers to public speaking, it sweeps away nerves and self-consciousness and fuses your ideas, words and personal expression to unconsciously create a performance which is congruent and gripping. Belief magnetizes an audience and opens people’s minds to ideas, which would otherwise fall on barren ground. Indeed, belief is such a mighty weapon, that it can sweep aside logical argument and move people to support, agree with and act upon issues, which they might normally reject. Subconsciously we all know, though fear to recognize or admit, that all rational argument is potentially flawed and that we agree with it only in the absence of proof to the contrary. Witnessing belief, on the other hand, lets us sip at the fountain of the eternal Truths hidden beyond formal logic. It is something greater, mystical and total. It elicits our primeval need for certainty over uncertainty, the known over the unknown and the quest for the unknowable. It demands faith, which wells within us and which forever seeks a just cause to sacrifice itself to. We want something to believe in. We want people who speak with belief.

Belief can be a force used for good or for bad. We only need to compare orators like Hitler or Martin Luther King to witness the difference. But belief also brought down the Berlin Wall. But before it could the people had to bring down the “Berlin Walls” within themselves. They had to climb over their fear of speaking and public self-expression. It was the power of Belief, which liberated them inside and then outside. Once the internal walls of fear and self-doubt had come crashing down, so did the external walls of the old regime. You may not be bringing down the Berlin Wall in your daily presentations, but the lessons still applies. Think deeply about what you believe in within your presentation and tell’em so!. Don’t just give them the dry facts and figures. Animate it! Illuminate it ! - with your personal Belief. Do that and you are not only much more likely to win hearts, as well as minds, but you’ll also see your own internal psychological walls to public speaking come falling down and, moreover, you’ll be surprised at what new paths will open for you.

Stephen.J Morgan
March 6th 2001
Author Stephen.J Morgan
Copyright ©2000 Stephen Morgan
All rights reserved
Revised March 2001