Misrepresentation

Two posts in two days this month? I'm far too kind to you people. Either I'm growing soft in my old age, or I'm finding more things to write about.

Right now what's going through my head is the concept of reality. We're all fairly certain we have a good grasp on it, or at least those of us who are considered sane most certainly. But it's a question that constantly finds it's way back into our culture. It's a question that's been bothering our subconsciousness since we first dreamed.

What is reality? How can we be certain? What if we're wrong?



These are excellent questions, to be perfectly blunt and I always enjoy it when a filmmaker taunts us with them. Examples of this include Fight Club (Distorted perception of reality), The Matrix (Electronic mental projections..And there was only ONE damnit!), Inception (Dreaming vs reality), and many more, including the old classic Alice in Wonderland.

It's forever intriguing to us to stop for a moment and wonder if the world around us is really the world as we know (knew?) it to be. As intriguing a question it is, it's also fairly disquieting. It's like that creepy doll that sits in the corner of the children's room, forever unblinking, smiling vapidly but with sinister shadows creeping about it's face.

I'll be the first to admit, quite bluntly, that I do not have the answers myself. I also strongly look down upon those who claim to be able to answer the question. Likely this is the basis for my non-adherence to any sort of religion, especially as they do frequently claim to have all the answers. Honestly, it doesn't matter which one, they all say they know the answer as far as I've ever heard, seen or read.

Belief is a wonderful thing, granted, and it can make concrete those very things which I find nebulous and ever so mildly disconcerting. The issue is, belief and proof are never bed fellows, and I'm the sort of person that requires the latter to support the former. I may believe quite strongly, for example, that a quarter held aloft and then released will not fall, but float quite merrily in the air, however upon release of said quarter, the belief fails to outweigh the burden of proof evidenced by the rapidly tumbling metal.

That said, I maintain the belief that our mind shapes our reality. Not to the extent depicted in the previously mentioned films, but in subtler ways that most often will escape our notice as they fall in line with our perceptions. As negative as much of this blog may seem, I am, in all honesty, very optimistic by nature. For every problem that arises, there is a solution. I know this, because it is proven by the fact that I have not stumbled upon a problem in life that I cannot think of an answer for. Is this concrete proof? No of course not, but I maintain that my perceptions are altered by my belief to the point that I can conceive of ways out of, around, or through a problem with a bit of thought and a touch of cleverness.

And in the end, isn't that really what defines reality for us? Our perceptions? The manner in which I may view something as coincidental, another may believe and see it as an act of divine will, while yet another may blame it on some maleficent entity, and so on. There are as many ways to perceive an event as there are people in the world as, none of us are alike in our perceptions which in turn are shaped by our observations, experiences, and our mentality.

Perception goes beyond our five senses, because how we interpret that perception is another form in and of itself, after all. The very thought process we go through to explain what we are seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, or hearing is a sense all on its own. Our mind, the organ we use, the end-road for all of these senses, really is what dictates our reality, in the end. So the question then is, how does your brain interpret your reality?