Perception Filters

by Paul Beach

Reality...

What is it?

Any philosophy you can think of is centered around this one question. And all philosophies take a position on whether reality is indeed perceivable, or not.

Plato asserted that true reality was of a form invisible to the mortal man. He further suggested that only the educated elite would ever have any inkling of the form of true reality. Kind of convenient for him, wouldn't you say?

His own student Aristotle disagreed with him on this point. Aristotle never claimed to be able to correctly perceive reality, but he maintained that it should at least be possible, and that we should always strive to seek the truth of all things.

Today we have over six billion individuals cohabitating on the giant ball we call Earth; each of us carrying in our head a perception of the world, the universe... reality. We walk around, each of us with a core belief system at some stage of development. For a young person, their core belief system will be largely based on what they have learned from their parents and others in their life that may have some influence. For someone older, their core beliefs will include lessons learned from first-hand experience. However, isn't it interesting that two individuals who have the same experience could each learn a distinctly different lesson, and internally log extremely differing core beliefs?

Our core belief system plays an enormous role in determining our behaviors; I don't think anyone would disagree with that. But doesn't that statement then suggest that even as conscious individuals we have a somewhat limited amount of free agency? According to most every religion and philosophy the purpose of life is to make choices and grow from the experience of life. Most religions further suggest that having free agency is part of that process. Our core beliefs may seem to be in conflict with our free-will, or maybe that's just how it is supposed to work. Most religions do say that we should aspire to perfection, that is, make only correct choices. Is that free will? And beneath all of it is the Law of Cause and Effect. Sure, you can do anything you want, but you will reap the consequences; there's no way around that. Where does true free agency fit in?

Many modern philosophies suggest that we create our reality with our dominate thoughts and behaviors. With enough discipline, they say, you could have virtually total control over your reality. If this is true, then your core beliefs have a distinct influence over your reality. Imagine, six million people cohabitating the same planet, all living in their own realities. Pretty silly, huh?

So, which is it? Do we have free will? Is reality static, or is it created by thoughts and behaviors influenced by our core beliefs?

The answers to these questions are all part of the pursuit of truth. As we ponder them, we become able to more clearly see reality.

I have long been a fan of the term core belief system. I believed (that is, it was part of my core belief system) that the more aware of our core beliefs we were, the more we would understand our behaviors, and the more we could empower ourselves to make wise choices. This is not a bad belief necessarily, but the problem with beliefs, as you can see, is that they leave open the way to mind-created realities.

A more accurate term to use might be perception filters. The concept is simple - true reality is there right in front of us. We look right at it, take it all in, but our mind distorts the image until it agrees with all the previous perceptions we've taken in. We are then disempowered to some degree as we try to integrate with this distorted image of reality. Our personal level of knowledge, our core belief system, even our current mood; all will have a bearing on our individual perception filters - how we "see" reality. We go through our day, we try to remain open-minded, but all sensory information goes through our own perception filter.

Many things can make a 'smudge on the glass', as it were. Ignorance is a thick filter. Closed-Mindedness, and its subtle twin Thinking-You-Know-Everything, would be examples of other thick filters. An experience could be both a cleaning of the glass, and/or additional smudging depending on the nature of the lesson learned.

It is easy to see how the average person today would be looking at reality through much less filtration than the average person five thousand years ago, or two thousand, or even just one hundred years. Seeing the world as flat, for instance, would be a pretty severe filter. Being able to conceive of the radio spectrum, which is for the most part invisible but still part of reality, has been a hugely beneficial bit of information that has helped clear the glass quite a lot for modern man. No one from a thousand years ago would have been able to accept let alone comprehend the heliocentric concept, or the concept of a radio spectrum. It would be filtering for us in turn, to accept as gospel the words written by such extremely filtered men of old.

The more we learn, the more we should realize that we don't know. But acquiring and integrating information is the only way to reduce perception filters. Obviously, the less filters one has, the clearer they will be able to see reality, and that can only be a good thing! Anyone that has ever been able to create some amount of measured success for them self has done so by integrating reality into their life, in at least one area or another, whether it be success at amassing wealth, success in a relationship, success at gaining popularity, or anything else.

And woe to anyone attempting to create their reality, for they integrate with any such reality at their cost!

Ah! But there is a string attached; and such a curious and fantastic string it is. Because the universe is so big, and possibly even infinite, it is quite possible that we will never know everything there is to know. That means that will always be a smudge on the glass. We will forever have filters, even if they only continue to be thinner and smaller. We will never know absolute reality. However, like Aristotle said, we should never give up the pursuit of truth, for doing so would mean stagnation and death.

The concept of free-will has virtually the same dynamics. It is true that we will never know pure free agency, but we must forever exercise it to the best of our abilities. The less perception filters we have, the more we integrate reality, the more free agency we will have as well.

And there is a third concept that is a sibling to the concepts of reality integration and free agency, and that concept is Immortality. Immortality, too, follows the same dynamics as reality integration and free agency. We'll never be immortal, as it were. We'll never know at any point that we will surely live forever after. However, we should do everything in our power to live forever, and right now that means overcoming the disease of aging! Death must become a choice before we will ever be able to have any semblance of free-will. Death will become a choice only after we have reduced our filters collectively, as a world of six billion conscious individuals, and integrated reality enough to acquire the knowledge necessary to cure all diseases.

I hope that this article has helped you to clear your glass if even only a little.

Be God!

Paul Beach

The Writer's Block<You Are Here

Music

Video

Podcast

Help People

Site Map