We’ve all heard the saying. And we’ve all experienced it.
”Hindsight is 20/20.”
Indeed, there are times when/where we look back at times & things in our pasts where they seem a whole lot more clear.
But.
We also probably tend to fall susceptible to cognitive biases that distort our perceptions when looking back far more often than we care to admit.
Sometimes the clarity of hindsight is genuine. Sometimes, we fool ourselves with the stories we tell - that things were better than they actually were, romanticizing the past through rose-colored lenses & emotional filters of sentimentality; or that they were worse, thinking & feelings still swayed from lingering disappointments, traumas, disillusionments.
It’s easy to think certain things appear clearer in the rirror view mirror. Just as it is to underestimate the biases still active as we tell ourselves narratives about how experiences, people, events were - no doubt seeing more now then we may have then, but still likely limited to a much broader spectrum of perspectives still denied access through the act of ‘concluding’ something with “clarity” through the lens of some filter.
Collapsing the quantum wave into particle state through observation, it most indeed can seem clear… but it’s still only one potentiality of many. As clear as things can seem, sometimes it’s still a drastic distortion to think they are clear - unaware of the filters still viewed through, having gaslit ourselves to think we’re seeing clearly - versus observing directly without any filters or biases at all (which may be close-to-impossible, given the way the human brain works).
Blatant example:
It’s probably not a small number of people who’ve looked back at relationships, thinking “hindsight is 20/20,” citing reasons their demise was “for the best” - claiming to have been ‘under the spell of love/lust/infatuation,’ but since ‘seeing the light,’ telling themselves & others how their ex’es were “narcissistics…” cherry-picking data points to support narratives validating confirmation biases that the other person was the problem or it was the relationship that was “toxic” - effectively bypassing and avoiding personal responsibility/accountability for their own shadows’ effects/impacts.
A level up in maturity/wisdom: we might be able to see our responsibility. And having transcended the need for blame & judgement, alchemizing the ocean of emotions accompanying any relationship, does come a higher perspective - more clarity on the constellation of dynamics that may have been engaged in throughout the relationship, the challenges & opportunities for growth of both souls, the shifting tides of evolving values and their incompatabilities, the dances of polarized light & shadows pushing & pulling the souls through life’s classroom of lessons & tests - no need for labels or conclusions to provide a sense of certainty to appease discomfort with the unknown, unresolved, and unknowable. A greater clarity, having stepped beyond / detached from the ego’s narratives, unravelled the threads of cognitive biases & logical fallacies wound in the psyche. Though still - unless perhaps under the influence of potent psychedelics providing the condensed hyperdimensional rocket fuel for the ultimate 10,000 ft. view from above; or having organically ascended to 1000 on the scale of consciousness (as per David R. Hawkins) - limited.
And after all, 20/20 is not the final highest benchmark of/for clarity.
I dunno wtf the technical measurement would be, but the sight of an eagle - able to see in fine detail from kilometers away - far exceeds the “clarity” of ‘20/20.’
’History books are written by the victors…’
Most of us have taken this fact for granted. The majority of us have gone through the institutionalized indoctrination camps of “schools,” governmental programs with their extensions into media, and/or religion propagating beliefs - all facets of societal & cultural systems that’ve shaped the ways we’ve looked at the world, thought it to come to be ‘the way it is,’ and the “clarity” many feel they have on the past. Though as we’re increasingly finding out, the “hindsight” of many collective perceptions we’ve thought to be “20/20” is far from it.
And while we may be able to view these shifts in collective awareness from a distance, cheering on the “awakening” and transition from widespread mass delusion built on distorted perceptions propagated as truth to increasing consciousness/vibration reflective & revealing of Truth, its easy to overlook & underestimate the extent of those collective programs & paradigms’ rooting & influence in/on our own psyches. (After all, the collective consciousness isn’t just out there somewhere in the ethers, but *woven into the genetic program - inexticably coded into our own DNA just as much as anyone else’s; no one else responsible for the alchemical transmutation.)
On one level, “clarity” is extremely difficult - if not impossible - to achieve if/when under the influence of ‘buggy code’ adopted from the collective/culture/society. Hindsight doesn’t always automatically reveal & rewrite ‘buggy code’ rooted deep in the subconscious.
On another, we’ve all undergone programming/conditioning of our own, exclusive of collective influences. And much of our own ‘history books’ have been written by the ‘victor’ of ego - especially in the face of traumas, where the psyche utilizes coping strategies to buffer the body & brain from full impact of information & emotion it doesn’t (yet) have the capacity to process fully. Many people live their entire lives with/from self-identities architected unconsciously for self-protection - their pasts never actually perceived with ‘20/20 clarity’ of hindsight, but through filters serving purposes of survival. Hindsight can “be 20/20” - *just as much as it can be a lens built from biases & fallacies. The passage of time alone does not resolve/clarify falsehoods written into the/our history books.
The point here…?
As began this week’s writings, it’s rather easy for us to gaslight ourselves. Not intentionally, consciously, or with any psychopathic intent; but just merely as a consequence of how our brains and their cognitive biases function.
And while I’ve come more to appreciate the wisdom of ’staying in my lane as aging, there’s still a rebellious shit-disturber in me somewhere that likes to challenge conventional dogma. And let’s face it - the whole “hindsight is 20/20” mantra has been repeated so many times, few of us have ever questioned whether it’s actually true.
And clearly, it ain’t. (Not all of the time.)
T’is a nice belief sometimes, providing a sense of certainty to the aspects of mind & ego uncomfortable with not knowing - a framework in which we can effectively convince ourselves of conclusions that serve various ends. But what seems like clarity is not always necessarily so. Seeds of truth accessed in the heights of Neptunian depths quickly become distorted, with boundaries dissolved & Saturnian discernment lacking - while easily feeling & appearing “clear.”
It’s easy to justify narratives of how the past ‘was,’ operating from/with a lens that grants “clarity” by default. Sometimes there is clarity - with or without the lens. Though rarely do the filters of beliefs & cognitive biases do their thing without at least some sense of “clarity” accompanying them. And rarely are we entirely free of them influencing our perceptions & thinking to some degree or another.
And even the “clarity” of “20/20” pales in comparison to the sight of an eagle - or shaman whose perception elevated with the rocket-fuel of plant medicine can perceive into dimensions beyond what the ‘normal’ mind even knows/thinks possible in its restricted capacities.
Anti-virus program activated.
😼🧬✨
my soul-sis Nik & I mighta been riding the same wave this week, as her latest podcast speaks to much of the same theme(s) in this and my other writings for the week - a short one worth the listen:
