Reality isn’t real

What is reality? In the physical world, we can say, “That building is real”, or “that ball really did go through my window”. But in the realm of your mind, what is reality?

Your reality is simply your perception of the world around you after your brain has filtered the input through your rules, values and beliefs heirarchy. Your brain is constantly asking, “What should this mean to me?” The answers it comes up with are based on what you believe, what your values are, and the rules that you’ve set up for yourself.

Here’s food for thought: In the movie The Matrix, the character Neo is introduced to the ‘programmed reality’ of the matrix. In a setting devoid of anything but 2 chairs and a television set, he asks the question, “This…this isn’t real?”

“What is real?”, he is asked by Morpheus. “How do you define ‘real’? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

Did you ever think about this? Are you sure that the red color you see is the same as the red color other people see? You know that the way your voice sounds to yourself is not the way other people hear you. You know this because you’ve listened to recordings of your voice. Does the smell of a daisy smell the same to you as it does to your neighbor?

Does an event mean the same thing to you as it does to the person down the street? You’ve been invited to go skydiving. Are you excited? Or are you aprehensive, or fearful? Why does skydiving excite some people and elicit uncontrollable terror in others? The answer is in the rules you’ve made for yourself, your beliefs, your values.

Your programmed reality

The encouraging fact is that all of these rules, beliefs, and values you have can be changed, if you want to. If you think about it, you’ll realize that most of this heirarchial system you have was set up without any input from you! It was programmed into your brain without your knowledge or consent. You didn’t consciously decide that you were going to be uncomfortable around new people, did you? Of course not. At some point in time, your brain decided that meeting new people was a thing to be nervous about. Maybe you met someone new, then later realized your fly was open. Or maybe you had a booger you didn’t realize was falling out of your nose until you looked in the mirror later. Your brain processes this, and decides that meeting new people isn’t such a good thing.

Hardly logical, is it? No. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Brain from making associations that may not make any sense or have any reasonable connection to ‘reality’. You don’t always walk around with your fly open or boogers hanging out your nose, do you? Of course not. But your brain has interpreted that meeting new people might mean embarassment because of something that may have happened once upon a time. It may not have even happened! The whole thing could be only your imagination, but your mind makes it real.

What is your reality? Is it empowering you to move beyond where you are, or is it limiting you?