Semai are conditioned from childhood to believe that thunderstorms and elephants and strangers may be aggressive and dangerous, but Semai never are. "We never get angry," they say. Being human, of course they do get angry, feel hurt and hold grudges. But their belief in their own nonviolence surmounts such feelings and prevents Semai from putting each other under pressure as a result. They are not violent people, simply because they believe they are not violent people.
— Lyall Watson, Dark Nature