Perception is NOT Reality

I perceive that this thread is about how awesome I am and how you want to give me $a million.

Seriously, though… I blame the schools.

No really. They don't teach people how to think; that is, how to use their minds to discover truth. They don't teach people to value truth over mental comfort. In fact, they consciously avoid teaching that sort of thing, because it would necessarily get in the way of the "gorge yourself on factoids; vomit on test paper" model of pedagogy. Don't believe me? Just look at the writing of the founders of the American education system. They said openly that was their goal, because they wanted a huge mass of functionally literate but unthinking people for them to rule.

That's not consciously the goal any more, but you can't just decide to take a century-old system designed for one thing and use it for its opposite. They're starting, ever so slightly, to insert formal logic and critical thinking into curricula. But even if the system were designed for that, it would be too little, too late.

So we shouldn't be surprised that we have a culture that believes in "will to power" and at some level believes that if you want something to be true, it is; and if it isn't, then it darn well ought to be and there probably ought to be a law making it so.

A constant theme in the Steve Job's biography is how he believed his perception was reality. He had a child out of wedlock that he didn't want to deal with. Their was no doubt the child was his and he even had a DNA test done which showed that the child was indeed almost certainly his. Yet he convinced himself that the child was not his, and made outrageous, clearly false statements to that affect. That hurt both the mother of his child, and I'm sure when the child grew up she may have been heart broken too.

In a sense, this ability to believe that his perception would become reality helped him. In his mind, he just knew he was special and would change the world through Apple and he did. He convinced his engineers that they could get what needed to be done finished on impossible time schedules.

So their are positives to believing that you can make your perception reality, but even for the recently deceased Steve Jobs, I'd still say the negatives will always far outweigh the positives of such self deception.

memoriesbymichelle said:

I agree with both of you (except for the million dollar part cuz MY reality is that YOU wish to give ME the million ).

But on a simpler note, why do people think certain things about others and they are just totally unfounded and untrue. At least when I think that someone is acting a certain way toward me, I think other things might be causing me to think that, not just that what I think is rule. IDK so many misconceptions out there.
If only we could really read minds.....

Click to expand...

I honestly think it's simply because some have too much pride and stubbornly believe that they are ALWAYS right, no matter what evidence is placed in front of them. How sad.

I obviously can't speak for everyone but often I perceive things based on feelings or past experiences. If I send a friend or someone I care about a message and I don't hear back then I assume they're upset with me or ignoring me on purpose. If someone tells me they're going to do one thing and then do another I perceive it as them being dishonest and using me for something I didn't know about. I'm not always right but it's hard not to be suspicious when people do certain things or act in a way that makes me think they're not being who they claim to be.

I've had a lot people, especially a couple family members, tell me that my perception of myself and the world around me is severely distorted. Maybe it's due to the pressure that I've placed on myself or perhaps it's because I can be a naturally suspicious person, but I always kind of assume that the way people treat me isn't indicative of how they really feel about me or that they're thinking something different than what they tell me. I think this helps me keep from being disappointed or heartbroken as well: if I assume the worst then I'm not surprised when they turn on me or don't hold up their end of the bargain.

I'm not saying it's right but that's the default I tend to fall back on. Ah, psychology!

memoriesbymichelle said:

I agree with both of you (except for the million dollar part cuz MY reality is that YOU wish to give ME the million ).

But on a simpler note, why do people think certain things about others and they are just totally unfounded and untrue. At least when I think that someone is acting a certain way toward me, I think other things might be causing me to think that, not just that what I think is rule. IDK so many misconceptions out there.
If only we could really read minds.....

Click to expand...

We see things through our filters...and, unfortunately, we often have a lot of cognitive distortions.

I don't like it, but perception is reality.

Perception is how we see things, or take and angle, and yes perception can be changed, manipulated, even faked, but to the perceiver, it is reality.

Perception is more accurately a changing process. But a snap shot can be worth a thousand words.

Atheist's perception is there is no god, that is their reality. Theists believe in God, that is their reality. Obviously they both can't be right, but right and wrong has nothing to do with one's perception or their reality.

Ever get in a argument where some one swears you said some thing! But you swear you did not say no such thing! You are convinced you did not, they are convinced you did. In each reality is different. The fact that one is correct and the other is incorrect does not change the reality.

This is why I understand all this, but don't like it

It's most commonly the result of misunderstandings and/or selfishness.

Some perceptions are closer to the truth than others, but even those don't tell the whole story. The finite nature of our knowledge, senses, and intellects limits the scope and accuracy of how we perceive reality.

Interesting topic and good post, Michelle.

If I may, let me interchange the word perspective for the word perception. When I am drawing a cup...one that is round at the top and tapers to it's base...unless I am looking straight down on it, I am always going to 'see' and therefore draw the top of the cup as an oval. And, the size and shape of the oval will change depending on how close or far, how far above or below, or which direction I am from the cup.

Our perspectives are not the reality of the cup, but the way our brain and eye makes sense of a situation and puts it on the paper of our thoughts. The only way two people are going to have the same exact perspective is if their eyes are in the same exact location looking at that cup...and that's physically impossible. One person can be on one side of the cup telling another that they are drawing the cup all wrong, but they'll never know until they come and look at it from that person's perspective. It is at that point that they can give an opinion of value or constructive criticism. And, in Truth, neither are seeing the reality of the top of the cup, because that's only seen from above.