REALITY vs PERCEPTION
Elangovan, October 9, 2018What is Reality
Reality versus perception has been a debate amongst the psychology fraternity for a long time. How one perceives things to be, though, isn’t usually how they actually are. Having an idealistic or notional idea of the state of things is very often far removed from real life, or how they actually exist. This is, in short, a definition of reality! Tom Chamberlain described the ‘real’ as ‘reliable and genuine, things you can safely lean on’. Is this, therefore, what true behavior is?
Intro to True Behavior
Another psychological debate has been the ‘who you are’ versus ‘what you do’ discussion. Basically, the fundamental question asked by this debate is what constitutes the true essence of a person. It is not in the ambit of this article to interrogate this question, however.
It does beg an interesting follow-up question, though:
In the understanding of one’s true behavior, are actions more important than motivations? These interrogations lead to robust discussions from all manner of experts. But for the purpose of clarity, and to better understand reality in this context, let us describe true behavior thus: It is those things that you cannot help doing. Yes, it is expected that one should be able to control their behaviors. But this is not always the case. It is certainly not the case with true behaviors, because they have their roots in a part of our brain we still do not fully understand.
Where It Comes From? (Sub-Conscious brain)
What the subconscious brain or the subconscious mind is, and how it works, are still difficult questions to answer. Every philosophy, every form of therapy, has its own definition. While some of these definitions are similar enough for us all to know, to a certain extent, what we mean, not all these definitions are in agreement. It is safe to say that the subconscious brain is, therefore, extremely complicated, and little understood! In order to understand the subconscious brain, as this concept relates to this article, is to interrogate what it is not, and what it cannot do. It is not metaphysical, existing outside the physical structure of the brain. It is a physical thing, a physical aspect of your neurological activity.
Things your subconscious brain cannot do:
- It cannot help you accomplish the desires of your heart
- It cannot cure disease
- It cannot make you grow taller, or change the color of your eyes
Why?
Because it functions on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Is has been given credit for basic functions like breathing and walking also. These are, however, functions of your autonomic nervous system. So just how are we to understand the subconscious brain? It is that part of your brain that, in an effort to make your life easier, creates automatic responses and behaviors to everyday situations and events in your everyday life!
How?
- It uses previous and current life experiences, and
- It listens to the instructions you give to it
Your subconscious is therefore a combination of factors: early childhood experiences and impressions, your purposeful actions, and also the 60 000 plus thoughts you have daily. What your subconscious brain then does, is take all these incoherent and conflicting ideas, and creates, or attempts to create, a coherent automatic response. The next logical question is, therefore, can it be controlled?
Can it be controlled?
In short, no! While you can create new subconscious programs, the ones already established cannot change automatically. This is, therefore, your true behavior, until you change the programs fueling this behavior. And since this behavior is, as previously stated, a series of automatic responses, these responses or behaviors are therefore outside of the ambit of your conscious control. The reasons for this are many and varied. Firstly, we trust our own pain and know our own happiness. We are aware of what has hurt us in the past, and also of what has made us deliriously happy. Secondly, there is no time for us to control, even if we could, all our conscious and subconscious thoughts. Monitoring our thoughts would leave us mentally spent at the end of every day. The following are just a few examples of how we cannot control the subconscious brain, or at least the true behaviors that stem from it.
Short Examples
The owner of the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Center, Dr. Karyn Hall, Ph.D., brought a phrase into our consciousness in 2012, radical acceptance. The term was first used by Linehan in 1993. Basically, it is one of the options we have when facing a problem, and involves an acceptance of life, as opposed to a resistance of things we cannot or will not change. Sadness and hurt are automatic responses for some of us, say, when we lose an apartment that we really wanted. This comes from our subconscious brain, if, say, we grew up in apartments that we didn’t like and had no control over. If we have been cheated on over and over again, true behavior might be to become defensive or reclusive, depending on the programs of our subconscious. It is important to note, though, that according to Hall, suffering is optional, and based on our interpretation and use of this pain! An acceptance of reality is therefore important, as a problem solving skill in our daily lives. A refusal to accept reality leads to suffering, and it is not a usual behavior for human beings to perpetuate their own suffering.
Conclusion
It is important, therefore, that we have a solid grasp of reality. Knowing the difference between reality and perception informs our acceptance of actual situations in our lives, as opposed to the perceived or idealistic. An understanding of the subconscious brain is also important, if we are to program it, or reprogram it accordingly. Because, in reality, the control we have over our true behaviors is really limited to our ability, or desire, to change the programming of our subconscious brain. And while these behaviors are out of our control, the responses created by our subconscious brain are even less so. In a world where we are bombarded with many conflicting influences daily, it is important that we control that part of our brain over which this is possible!
References:
Tom Chamberlain, Maplebeck, Notts
www.mindfithypnosis.com/what-is-the-subconscious-mind, Apr 12, 2017
Karyn Hall, Ph.D., www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201207, Jul 8, 2012
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