My primary bias (or delusion, if you don’t agree with it): The experience I’m having is not real.
What I mean by this is best explained emotionally through some of my favorite films like Tron, The Matrix, 13th Floor, Dark City, Truman Show, etc (I could list many more). Religions touch on this also when they describe some other experience (be it Heaven or Hell) that is less transient and more eternal. Simulation theory gets it also when it uses probability to argue we’re likely not in base “real” reality. The concept of “Maya” is similarly described in this way, that we’re somehow being fooled by our senses instead of realizing the truth that “there is no spoon.”
I have this bias and have possibly had it my whole life. It feels deeply connected to my reason for being and my approach to being less wrong on my journey of discovery (or possibly, more accurately stated as journey of remembering).
Over the years, I’ve found various intelligent thinkers to confirm my pet bias like Thomas Campbell, Donald Hoffman, Bernardo Kastrup, and others, but I do see it for what it is: a confirmation bias. They didn’t convince me of my current view from a neutral starting point as much as I like them because they support what I feel I’ve always believed.
I’m open to the idea that, at some level, we all mostly function this way. We gravitate towards ideas and worldviews (such as religions) because they confirm what we feel we already “know” and only until something “better” comes along that feels even less wrong and more inline with our intuitive knowing, do we shift world-views. When we latch on to a new idea, it’s often just a deeper or more comfortable agreement with our core meaning-making.
This may be what some people call monoculture. The identity that goes along with a core bias.
The more I see this about myself, the more I can recognize my behavior patterns for meaning-making. Examples include:
- Government isn’t what I think it is! It’s actually a corrupt mafia-style monopoly on violence in a geographic region and therefore we must transcend this lie and move towards voluntary, decentralized governance tools like bitcoin and blockchains.
Discovery over time: decentralized governance doesn’t fix people. People are still the problem.
- Money isn’t what I think it is! It’s actually a fiat Ponzi scheme stealing from everyone and we all need to use bitcoin and community currencies.
Discovery: while an improvement, all cryptocurrencies including bitcoin have governance and corruption challenges at some level.
- Christianity and religion are not what I think they are! They are actually a system of mind control, distorted away from the original direct personal mystical experiences. God isn’t real!
Discovery: Hard materialistic determinism doesn’t work either. The word “God” still has meaning, either as the absolute unbounded oneness or the abiding non-duality, etc. Society without a belief in God may be worse than one with it.
- Reality isn’t what I think it is! Consciousness is actually fundamental and reality is an emergent property of consciousness. The All Is Mind; The Universe Is Mental.
Discovery: and yet here we are having human experiences within this realm. Be present in the body and don’t bypass.
- Joy, happiness, and wellbeing are not what I thought they were! They are actually internal experiences that can be obtained regardless of external circumstances and tools like Jeffery Martin’s work show how this is available to everyone.
Discovery: and it still sucks to get injured, sick, have relational challenges, unmet desires leading to suffering, etc.
- Food isn’t what I thought it was! Plants are actually trying to kill you and meat is the ideal species specific diet. We’ve been lied to, and fats are being blamed for what sugar is doing and it all started with the Seventh Day Adventists.
Discovery: TBD. I’ll likely adjust my views over time as I often do on my various journeys.
I recognize how much I love a story that goes along the lines of: 1) what you thought you knew isn’t real and 2) a fringe story that few are aware of (gnostic wisdom, if you will) is a better. This plays out for me over and over. I also have to own it includes 3) and… now your initially extreme stance has more nuance as you discover more over time.
Because I show up with so much passion and energy when I find something that fits my bias pattern, it can be confusing for others. It’s like “Luke is evangelizing his latest religion again! Here he is, preaching his ‘truth’ again!” My experience isn’t so much the “actually” part, but the joy and excitement of fitting within the pattern I enjoy so much. Instead “now I have Truth!” (which is how I perceive preachers and evangelists), I experience “I believe I’m now less wrong.” I’m open to us all having different experiences of reality (see my currently pinned post for more on that). For me, I enjoy the curiosity. The not knowing. The discovery that a known thing is now unknown and a new idea fits even better!!! But hold that one loosely too, because all is open to change with the next exciting discovery. Sometimes my passion and energy get misinterpreted as certainty, especially when I defend my current pet bias idea.
When I do so, feel free to reply with “Cool story, bro.” I’ll then know you understand I’m not sharing “Truth” with you, just my own story that confirms my pet bias.