What’s real and what’s not is a fundamentally tough question to answer. That’s because it’s dictated by the Slippery Mind, that powerful but not very smart part of the primitive brain who’s only job is to keep us safe.
In this role of protector, it’s job is to analyze what’s happening in the moment and try to understand it so that it can handle the situation. In trying to understand reality, the Slippery Mind is is CONSTANTLY coloring our experiences, filtering our thoughts, filling gaps to our memories, editing our perceptions.
And to the Slippery Mind, what it comes up with is never just opinion but instead statement of fact! That’s why our opinions and viewpoints tend to be stubborn buggers that don’t like to be swayed.
Because if there’s uncertainty, to the Slippery Mind, it can mean the difference between life and death … so it thinks!
Remember, the Slippery Mind is very powerful but not very smart!!
Here’s a demonstration of just how slippery things can get:
Take a look at the image below. The lines have markings that give the illusion of them being curved. So let’s find out if they really are.
Click on the video and watch how the illusion is broken when the yellow lines are superimposed onto the other lines. Try it a few times.
There’s one part of your mind that absolutely knows the lines are straight. You just proved it conclusively. But there’s another part of the mind that doesn’t know what you know! It only sees what it sees and makes that the reality you perceive.
Tricky stuff, yeah?
And the bad news is we cannot stop the Slippery Mind from a) ascribing labels and judgments to things and b) superimposing its creations into your current “reality.”
The good news is that once you know of the Slippery Mind and its tricky nature, you can begin to question what is real, what shows up as certain to you.
Poking holes into that sense of certainty will give you the freedom to interpret things differently and therefore take a different path.
When a belief or perception pops up, ask yourself things like:
- Is this real? Is it true?
- Is it the only thing that’s real or true?
- What else could be real or true?
When you begin to play with your perceptions and the creations of the Slippery Mind, then and only then can you truly be the “artist of your life” where you get to pick and choose what’s true for you and what you want to create in your life.
Good luck and have fun!!
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