Weekly Wellness News

June 18, 2007

Feature: Life Is a Mirror

Life is a mirror. The world we experience is a reflection of who we are as individuals.

Our perceptions are not entirely accurate; they are filtered through our minds. The problem is, our minds alter what we see, hear, and feel based on our experiences. Since no two people have the same experiences, no two people see an event in exactly the same way.

We're all familiar with the idea that there are three sides to any story: the first person's side, the second person's side, and reality. There are as many sides to any story as there are people to experience the event. Some people see details others miss, some have the expertise to more correctly understand certain bits, every person focuses on different pieces of information, each person has a different perspective, the same spoken words can be interpreted differently by two people in entirely different ways. Each perception is as unique as the person who has it.

There is an interesting side-effect to this uniqueness: every person sees a version of reality that is shaped by their beliefs. What you believe to be true alters your interpretation of events.

There is a story about aboriginal islanders not being able to see the ships of European explorers, that these ships were outside the comprehension of ancient primitives. While this story is very likely not true, the message it conveys is one we've all experienced: we perceive something as completely obvious, and the person next to us has no clue what we're talking about. This is one aspect of 'perceptual blindness'.

So if I'm not seeing reality, what am I seeing?

My interpretations continually seem to strengthen my beliefs, when in fact the reason they do is because the belief itself alters the perception before it reaches my conscious mind. If I believe a particular person is 'good', then I will have a different understanding (interpretation) of their actions than will someone who believes that person is 'bad'. Once I analyze their actions in light of the belief, it does in fact strengthen the belief, but the important point is that my belief strongly influences what I observe in the first place.

This is where prejudice comes from: if we believe a person is 'good', 'bad', 'right', 'wrong', 'credible', 'biased', or anything else then anything they do or say will be viewed in a light that reinforces that belief. This belief can stem from something as simple as the color of their skin or the clothes they wear or the sound of their voice. It can be obvious or subtle, but it is always there. When we examine, inspect, or analyze the world, what we see is a reflection of our beliefs about the world.

But the beautiful thing is this allows self-understanding. When we judge someone else as 'good' or 'bad', we are actually seeing the good and bad within ourself. Whenever we form an opinion, what we're really doing is bringing our beliefs into our conscious mind, where we can discover and observe them. Once we see what they are, we begin to understand why we act and feel the way we do.

By exploring our opinions of external events, we are illuminating our passions, our fears, our desires, our anxieties. When we interpret an event, we are actually interpreting our innermost world.

Life is, after all, a mirror.

Resources:

• None So Blind: Perceptual-blindness experiments challenge the validity of eyewitness testimony and the metaphor of memory as a video recording [www.sciam.com]
• Questioning perceptual blindness: I see no ships [www.forteantimes.com]

Other news

• One step closer to Gattica: Gene screening 'safe' for babies [news.bbc.co.uk]
• Hospitals are killing our poor... Superbugs spreading among urban poor [source]
• ... and our elderly: Op threat for anaemic older men [news.bbc.co.uk]

From the editor

Last week I mentioned that I am going to be conducting wellness workshops. My schedule for the next few weeks is starting to form up. I'll be in Seattle the first week of July, then Denver the second. My next planned stop is Anchorage the second week in August. If you are in any of these locations and would like me to facilitate a workshop in your area, get in touch with me right away and we'll make the arrangements.

The updates to the website will probably not be completed until early August, I'll make a formal announcement at that time.

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

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Copyright 2007, Jeffrey Eliasen.
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