One of the most mysterious features of the human condition is that we have awareness of our awareness. This means that consciousness recognizes itself, unlike our eyes, which can stare out into all of the vast universe but cannot see themselves. We might even say that consciousness illuminates all of our perceptions. It enables us to know we exist.
While we enjoy the awesome power of consciousness throughout our lives, it lays the groundwork for a fundamental distortion that rarely gets recognized or discussed. Essentially, humans live in a mirage—in an as if world. Moment by moment, consciousness and thought work together to form our perception of life. They do such a good job that we forget we are experiencing a construct of the mind.
Our consciousness brings our thoughts alive through our sensory organs. If we imagine eating a favorite dessert, our senses will bring a sweet taste to our mouths. If we think of ants crawling over us, our skin will start to feel itchy. If we recall a difficult test we took in school, our brows will furrow and our stomachs will tighten.
Consciousness is so good at making our thoughts seem real that to even question their veracity would seem absurd to most humans. Every waking moment of every day, we continuously receive feedback supporting the belief that we are perceiving objective reality, not subjective reality. Society and culture reinforce this viewpoint in myriad ways.
We have expressions like, “It’s just a movie,” to remind us that cinema is not actually real, but no similar expressions to remind us that the events playing out in our minds are also concocted. We recognize that our friends, spouses, and colleagues often perceive the same events quite differently from us, yet instead of concluding from this discrepancy that our perceptions are subjectively generated, we believe it is other people who are misperceiving, while we are seeing reality.
But alas, if we allow ourselves to step back for a moment, we can use our logical ability to infer with certainty that we are not perceiving objective reality. How can we be so sure? Because we know the human experience is a thought-based one. Every piece of sensory data we intake gets filtered and interpreted by our personal minds to create our interpretation of reality.
What makes this fact so damning is that we have abundant evidence all around us of the limitations of our sensory organs. Eagles have eyesight that is four to five times better than ours. Blue whales can hear from 7 to 35,000 hertz, while we can only hear from 20 to 20,000 hertz—and the greater wax moth can hear to 300,000 hertz! Catfish have as many as 175,000 taste receptors on their tongues, while we have only 10,000. Dogs possess a sense of smell that is over 10,000 times superior to ours. The star-nosed mole has nasal appendages that are six times more sensitive to touch than the human hand.
Therefore, we know that the sensory data upon which we are building our perceptions is limited. Very, very limited, in fact. For every single one of our sensory organs, there exists an animal that has a vastly superior one. Our brains may be the most advanced in the animal kingdom, but the sensory data that informs them is not that great.
True, advances in science and technology are allowing us to improve our sensory data with inventions such as telescopes and radar. But the fact that such improvements continue to occur at a rapid clip only underscores the point. At least at this moment in time, we can safely conclude that humans are not perceiving everything that is possible to perceive. We are only intaking a fraction of what exists in the universe. And without a doubt, we are introducing countless biases along the way.
For some, this harsh fact may seem like a bitter pill to swallow. Why should we admit we are living in a movie 24/7? Wouldn’t it be much easier to continue plodding through life believing that what we are witnessing in front of us is indeed reality? Why not simply maintain the illusion that has been so neatly prepared for us?
The answer is because doing so is precisely what causes all of our pain and suffering. One might even argue that the divine intelligence of the universe crafted this funny human predicament of believing our perceptions to be real only so that we may overcome it. Of all the maturational steps in a human life, this would certainly qualify as the granddaddy. For what could possibly foster more growth and development than that “aha” moment when we suddenly realize the full scope of the game of life we are playing?
Consider, for instance, the many benefits that come from such a realization. When we truly understand the subjective nature of our thoughts, we are finally free to not be ruled by them. Anxiety, depression, melancholy, grief, and sorrow are no longer gut-wrenching emotions that consume our beings, but rather mere shadows flickering on the cave wall, to reference Plato’s allegory of the cave.
The drama of life ceases to be a high-stakes operation because we now know it is not 100% real. We can simply experience it for what it is. Does this mean that nothing matters? That people’s suffering is not significant? Of course not. But when we place these events in a larger context, it allows us to navigate them more effectively and to see them for what they are.
With such understanding, our thoughts will continue to come and go continuously, just like always, but we no longer need to take them so seriously. We no longer need to treat our personal minds as if they are the rulers of the universe. We can soften our judgment, relax our grudges, and stop giving so much weight to the actions of others.
Remember, after all, that just as we are only getting a very subjective view of life through our very muddied senses, so to is everyone else. This shift in frame of reference permits us to greatly expand our compassion for others. We are all imperfect perception boxes. Every one of us.
What this means is that we are each psychologically innocent creatures. We can stop being so triggered by our friends, our lovers, our bosses, and our parents. We can stop taking everything so personally. Because each one of us is just a frail, goofy, imperfect perception box with a lousy set of sensory organs and mind that gets easily seduced into thinking that what it is perceiving is real.
And so the immensity of the paradox gets ever more immense. We use our incredibly advanced personal minds, possibly the greatest personal minds in the entire solar system, if not galaxy, to realize how small and puny and insignificant they are. And how flawed their grasp of the universe is.
Which sets the stage for the greatest, greatest, greatest thing about humanity. Because even though our personal minds are so deeply imperfect, for some unknowable reason they have been granted the capacity to go beyond their own limitations. When we least expect it, when we stop trying, when we finally quiet our internal chatter, sometimes, just sometimes, they receive insight—insight from an inexplicable source, an awe-inspiring repository of knowledge, where the intelligence of the universe resides.
And it is from this wondrous source that all invention springs. It is from this source that all hope emanates. It is from this source that our fate awaits us. With kindness, compassion, and love. And it is available to each and every one of us right now. Merely by laying down our game.
How cool is that?