The Great Delusions of Mind

Let me say it upfront, crudely and bluntly. The mind is delusional. There isn’t a more concise way of describing it. It weaves together stories, memories, expectations, fears and hopes into one unedited movie we call the ‘I’ or ‘the world’, at a scale that is unmatched anywhere in the natural domain. Individually and collectively we are a massive production house of delusions. We project those delusion on the ‘outer’ reality which we take for granted as a given and as existing separate from the mind.

We craft objects, systems and technologies at an insane rate that are designed to keep us at the level of mind and its delusional constructs (think of mobile phones and social media). We elect governments, comply to rules, buy into cheaply sold fears, trade our authentic freedom for others’ advice and we do all this without ever blinking an eye or begging one question. This is the work of the delusional mind.

All the trillions of things in the human world are a reflection of mind. They are born out of mind to reinforce and perpetuate mind and its delusions. The mind is also collective. It’s a network. Perhaps one of the biggest collective delusions is security. We seek security in all forms and at all stages of our lives from our mother’s breasts to trillions of dollars in insurance policies all the way to care homes for the elderly. We believe at heart that there is something called security and we build political manifestos, international policies or cross-generational agreements based on this one big delusion.

Now, I do understand that the need for security arises out of other basic human needs such as shelter, food and social warmth. It’s a genetic directive for self-preservation scripted in all biological forms.

It’s the belief that something is fundamentally secure and our attachment to it that makes it delusional because, in reality, there is no security. Life and the universe do not really work like that.

Evolutionary Crisis

The only thing that we can be certain of is change and change brings all sorts of uncertainty. There is always uncertainty when it comes to systemic change and the unknown resulting from such change. We fear the unknown and hence we dislike uncertainty. More specifically, the mind dislikes anything it cannot control, measure up to or predict with a certain level of accuracy. Yet uncertainty, novelty and spontaneity is the way of the Universe. Everything is in constant motion or flux. If there was epistemic certainty in living systems, there wouldn’t be evolution because too much certainty engenders stagnation.

All change and moving forward happens through crisis – the temporary breaking down of old structures so as to accommodate new ones and re-organising into a whole again that comprises both the ‘old’ and ‘new’. Crisis is not a bad thing. It’s the emotional and conceptual label we put on crisis that is bad. It is the pain and discomfort that we associate it with that is. Crises are not only inevitable they are the most important factor driving evolution.

When we think of the word ‘crisis’ – it brings to us a lot of negative connotations such as wars, hunger, terrorism, crumbling markets and natural catastrophes. It also makes us anxiously bite our nails at the thought of the future. But here lies the dilemma – do we prevent crises or do we work our way through them? Do we build walls or do we tear them down? Do we create secure borders in our mind, which is ultimately an illusion, or do we openly trust and allow for change?

Living in the Heart and by the Heart

Most of our current world crises are man-made. They are the inevitable consequence to our fear-based reality, our current state of consciousness. The pain and suffering that comes with a crisis is born out of our resistance to change and out of our fear of uncertainty. To take it one step further, our man-made crises happen because of an unhealthy and unsustainable worldview – a delusional and distorted idea of Self and reality; That we are separate from the Universe around us.

In more simple words, while crises are an inevitable part of change and evolution some crises are not or can be dealt with less painfully if we break through the delusional mind and live more aligned to our hearts. Meaning, accepting that life is open waters, ever-changing and at times uncertain. Most of all that we are intricately tied and responsible to all that happens around us.

Read Part 2 Here