Fellow Steemitor, I have a red pill and blue pill for you... if you take the blue pill, this post ends. You wake up on facebook and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the Steemit hole goes...
Hm...
You've chosen the red pill.
It's time to sit back, relax, read viligantly, and remember:
All I'm offering is the truth...
We live in a massive reality conundrum.
I say this because in life…
It seems as though the world we see, feel, hear, smell and taste is the world we live in.
It seems as though the world that our friends, family, co-workers, and fellow citizens live in, is the same as our own.
It seems as though the experiences that we are having, are a direct result of what is going on outside of us.
The conundrum then, is the fact that none of these statements are absolutely true.
And in most cases…
They are far from it.
The Truth Of Your Reality
The truth is quite honestly this:
You do not live in the world.
As much as you may want to try and convince yourself that the world around you is the world you are living in… think again!
I’ll explain that by first asking you this question:
How do you interact with the outside world?
Through your five senses right?
Some might say six senses if you counted intuition.
I personally would include intuition as a sense, but if we were just focusing on the five physical senses and I asked you something like:
“What are your five physical senses doing for you?”
You might say something like:
They are taking in information from the outside world via my sensory nerve receptors and interpreting that data so that I can perceive the world.
So we are taking in information from the outside, but what happens when we interpret this information?
When we interpret this data, we begin to place our subjective impressions onto it.
Our interpretations of the outside world reflect our inner map.
While the world “out there” or external to us may be one way, how we interpret that data is an entirely different process!
This is where we experience the great conundrum of life.
We Live In A Matrix Of Our Mind
While it may seem that we all interpret external data in the same way, there are subtle variances that make a huge impact on our perception.
These subtle variances act as “sensory programs”, some of which dominate our perspective in a myriad of ways.
When you are learning something new, are you more visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, or digitally focused?
This right here will change your experience of the territory, the world “out there”.
By favoring one type of sensory program, you are constructing a map, or inner reality, that is based upon that specific data set.
An auditory-dominant individual will focus primarily on information that is shaping his or her perspective of the world via what he or she hears.
At the same time, a visually-dominant person sitting in the same classroom may be taking information that has a similar context, yet the information is entirely different.
Are they both receiving similar information? Likely, and this is why we are able to come to a similar consensus about our reality.
However, these subtle shifts in focus do make a major difference in the long run.
And this can, quite often, cause us to mistakenly believe that the world we live in, is the same world as those around us live in.
Our Mind’s Filter
We just discussed the sensory programs that focus how we take in information, but what about our belief system?
Our beliefs are subconsciously operating thought programs that are rigid, autonomic, and repetitive in nature.
They look for information that matches what we THINK exists in the world.
Although our belief systems are designed to create a sense of structure and continuity so that we can operate and navigate the world, there’s a major limitation here.
The limitation exists in the fact that our belief systems are only focusing on what we believe to be true.
Things that exist outside of those belief systems, are commonly ignored or interpreted in a way that matches the thought program.
So essentially, you see and interpret what you want to see and interpret.
If this is true, that means the world you see, feel, hear, smell, and taste out there (objective reality) is likely interpreted much differently in here (subjective reality).
So although it may seem like the world you experience, the objective territory, is real and true to the touch - this is hardly the case.
Have you ever lost your keys in your house?
You spend 20 minutes ravaging the place until you suddenly realize...they were on the kitchen table, right in front of you the entire time!
How did you miss them? Well, it’s quite possible that you believed they were lost and thus your mind was only allowing you to take in information that matched that perspective.
Finding your keys, at the time, were not a part of that perspective!
"We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe." - Don Miguel Ruiz
We Manufacture Meaning
We've just explored two facets of our perception that are already significantly altering the difference between our map (the inner reality) and the territory (the outer reality).
But there's more...
As humans, we have this special ability.
It's an ability to create meaning.
Meaning is what is necessary to clarify what is important to us and what is not.
We place meaning on everything in our lives...
Our job, relationships, home, traditions, our past... and so much more.
Everything in our life has meaning, and that meaning is totally and completely up to us to decide.
With that being said, if you could somehow figure out a way to have the SAME EXACT experience of the outside world as someone else, you would still interpret it drastically differently.
This is simply because the experience would mean something specific for you...
That meaning is extremely unique, and only relevant to you.
Thus, as much as you could try to control the environment around you, the meaning you place on that environment paints an entirely new layer of reality.
Truth Is Relative
When we perceive the world around us, it simply is not as it appears. We can never represent an external event exactly as it appears, because our internal structure modifies it.
We are quite literally in our own little space bubbles.
It may seem like the world outside of us is what we are made out of.
The truth is… it is only what we think it is.
...and how we interpret that, is a personal responsibility.
When I realized this for myself, I was at first a bit shocked by it. It’s weird to think that you’re not actually interacting with the world and that your entire reality is a figment of how you interpret it.
However, I began to realize over time that there is great power in this. Since our thoughts and emotions make up much of the lens in which we filter reality, when we learn how to change and take more precise control over that filtering process, then we can start interpreting reality on our terms.
Another extremely important thing that I realized is that because I am only interpreting my external reality in specific ways, that means I am missing out on a lot of useful data.
This means that the interpretations shared from others become highly valuable to me.
I may see the territory out there as one way, but someone standing right next to me may have an entirely different perspective.
Is one better than the other?
In my opinion: not at all.
It's just information.
I see our perception as a small piece of the pie.
The entire pie represents every perspective of the territory combined together.
We each interpret a small piece of that pie.
What seems to happen is that as humans, we run into problems because everyone is seeing a different “piece” of the pie.
And thus, one person may say “this is the absolute truth.”
They may be right in that it’s truth… but is it the only truth?
Absolutely not!
This is why I always seek out numerous perspectives when I’m trying to understand the truth of a situation or of an external reality.
With so many different slices of life, you have to acquire as much pie as you can to even begin to have a useful perspective.
I am lucky in that I really do love pie. ;-)
The Map Is Not The Territory
I believe that if more people understood how perception actually works, we’d probably be able to get along a lot better.
Maybe there’d be more compassion in the world as we realize that everyone has a unique and useful perspective to share.
Maybe we’d appreciate the value of listening more as we realize the value in acquiring a greater perspective.
Maybe we’d question our own beliefs more, as we realize that we are limited by our mind’s filter and perpetual choices.
In the end, what is going on within you (the map) is not the the world around you (the territory).
Remembering this provides you with the power to change at any moment.
When you are in control of interpreting the reality around you, you also get the opportunity to choose the best information to work with.
With so much information available to you, will you choose the most empowering perspectives?
The choice is yours...
When you think about your perception, do you feel detached and/or separate from the world around you? Or do you feel like what you experience within you is accurate, compared to what is going on around you?
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