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Our world is filled with illusions and deceptions. As our mind tries so hard to grasp and categorize billions of inputs, it regularly causes us to see things that simply are not there. Visually, optical illusions are fun and exciting to view, but what happens when the same trickery is applied to more sensitive areas of our minds?
Ask a 5 year old about how they interpret something they just saw. Have them go into details about why the scene happened as it did. They can very inventively tell you the root cause, what happened in the past to make the scene possible, and what will happen in the future because of the situation. We call it imagination. This is not a bad thing, but as adults – our mind still works the exact same way. It creates scenarios so the information makes sense. It happens so fast that we don’t remember using our ‘imagination’ to create something simple into something complex – but we still do it, and often time we make a new filter in the process and almost always alter reality.
Our perceptions of money, love, life, work, friends, society, even what is right and wrong – are all altered by illusions that we have. Racism, religions, and politics have multiple illusions attached to them that make them volatile subject matters ending in death almost daily – all over illusions like the one above.
Illusions break down communication, destroys friendships, cause war and despair. Every single person that is or ever was in this world has been adversely affected by the illusions we hold that cloud the truths. Your last fight with your loved one wasn’t about money or who left the toilet seat up, it was caused by an illusion that was formed before the fight even started. You catch yourself doing things that you don’t understand. You look at a friend and question their motives because what they are doing isn’t right or sane from the view of their stated goals. Every day you see that reality and your perceptions don’t quite match up, because your mind lies to you.
The normal person has thousands of filters (illusions) the information passes before being stored or interpreted by the brain. Each filter alters the reality of what is being said, seen, heard, and done. While necessary, these same filters, if left unattended, can cause serious harm to our goals and our lives. Luckily, we can monitor these filters to a large degree and change them as needed. Perception is NOT reality. Reality is truth and perception is how our minds interpret that truth. For most of us, our minds are pretty poor interpreters of true reality.
Example: You leave a busy store and walk to your car. Just as you are about to open the door, or sometimes after you sit down, you discover that this isn’t your car. Why did we do this? Our brain was on automatic mode – we trust it so much, we often allow our brains to be on automatic. It saw the car and it fit the brains definition of OUR car, so it must be ours. No questions asked, it just jumped to the conclusion. The filter in place said it was this color, this shape, and this size. Reality is – not our car. Perception was – it fits the filters so it must be ours. Your brain makes millions of little decisions every day, the filters allow the brain to make faster and faster decisions – sometimes these decisions are very wrong. Finding the wrong car might be comical, but what happens when your brain makes a fast and wrong decision about something important, like what your spouse is really trying to say to you (I swear, all I heard was blah blah too much football blah blah – I didn’t hear “I really want to go out tonight” or “I really need to vent”) or what goal of ours should be priority.
Filters affect what we hear, how we speak, what we do, how we see the world. On automatic mode or in full control mode – our brains interpret everything through dozens to thousands of filters. By becoming aware of these filters and how to use them properly, we can be more productive and have better results in our lives.
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