Imagined words and false realities

I have talked a few times about how one of the massive benefits of the human mind is its simulation ability. We can literally imagine anything.

As brilliant as the mental simulator is as a creative tool, it can also be devastating. Not only can it create destructive things, it can also be a simulator of fear and anxiety. Or, it can literally put your words in someone else's mouth and those words can be pretty convincing.

The reason that things like the 'Secret', where you are supposed to visualize what you want and think like you already have it, don't work is for this reason. It is pretty convincing. Why would you do any work to get something you already think you own?

This works the same when imagining the words others may speak.

Only a fool believes to be true, that which he imagined in another. - Shakespeare

And 400 odd years later, it still stands as good advice.

As convincing as it sounds, the words are our own, not theirs. Yet from a psychological perspective, our mind may not be able to tell the difference. This could be part of the the reason for psychotic delusions where an obsessed fan thinks that a celebrity actually loves them. It is likely they have imagined the scenario a thousand times and for all intents and purposes, it is now true for them.

The mind is a brilliant simulator after all.

This also happens when we hear what another person said from a third party. The third party has many reasons to misrepresent someone or they may just simply not remember verbatim. Either way, as the words are said, we imagine the target person actually saying them. It creates concrete memory connections and we believe that we know it to be true, after all, we heard it ourselves from their mouths.

At University, it was a study technique to read class notes back to yourself while looking into the mirror. It supposedly tricks the brain into hearing the lecture again. The quality of notes taken is quite important though, something I was quite poor at, at the time.

It is very difficult to be told something and not have the simulator go to work and mentally create it, if not impossible. What can counteract the process is critical thinking and a healthy dose of skepticism. It doesn't mean that the words were not actually said, or they are not valuable, it is just that the words themselves need to be separated from the source and personal opinions for evaluation purposes.

This takes practice, especially when we hear words that are said on topics or from people we are invested in. If people were more skeptical, many of the fake news stories would not be spread by either those that are for or against certain positions.

It is very easy to put our own words into someone else's imagined mouth and often, we tend to believe that we are representing them well. We change their words to say what 'they actually mean' rather then keep the fidelity of the sentences. This makes our creations only our interpretation of their words and can be quite biased depending on our own position.

It all opens up quite a large can of worms. Which can that is up to you but, with all of the claims of what people have said in history on a large range of topics, I have a lot of skepticism as to their authenticity.

Again, it doesn't mean that there is no value in the words, but the value has to be present regardless of the source. It doesn't matter if Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, or any of the great ancient philosophers said the words, the weighting of the information should actually be the same.

Information should be examined thoroughly rather than taken as gospel as true. Even 2500 years ago:

O bhikshus and wise men, just as a goldsmith would test his gold by burning, cutting, and rubbing it, so you must examine my words and accept them, but not merely out of reverence for me. -Buddha

This again, is good advice. Remember it listening to politicians, celebrities, business experts and currency hawkers. Whether you like them or not.

The mental simulator unchecked can also create terror of all kinds. Any parent with teenage children who are not yet home after curfew could imagine them 'dead in a ditch' somewhere. A jealous partner who doesn't get a response to a text immediately may imagine the worst also.

There are many ways our mind can work for or against us and it is in our own best interest to learn to use our minds to their full capabilities, as well as understand the risks it poses. We must learn how to control for maximum mental upside, and limit the potential downside.

Part of this is understanding that our imagination runs rampant, and our feelings follow. When we have no control over either, we tend to act very poorly indeed.

Shakespeare never said those words to the best of my knowledge. That was me.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]