Nothing Is What It Seems 💭
Maps and Tunnels: Part 1.
Today, let’s talk about tunnels. But first, a story.
A man who was traveling came upon a farmer working in his field and asked him what the people in the next village were like. The farmer asked "What were the people like in the last village you visited?" The man responded, "They were rude, unfriendly, dishonest people." "You'll find the people in the next village are the same," said the farmer.
Another man who was traveling to the same village came up to the same farmer somewhat later and asked him what the people in the next village were like. Again the farmer asked "What were the people like in the last village you visited?" The second man responded "They were kind, friendly, generous, great people." "You'll find the people in the next village are the same," said the farmer.
— Parable of The Two Villages
The universe mirrors back to us exactly how we are looking at.
Every second our brain is receiving a huge amount of information. Visual, audio, smell, taste, nerve signals, position, motion, balance, temperature. That includes processing of motor functions and our own thoughts.
In order to cope with this amount of information, we have an ability to focus our attention on a particular input by filtering out all other inputs. This process is enabled through a filtering mechanism which blocks brain signals at the thalamus.
We control what information we let into our brain.
In addition to the sensory filter, once the information entered the brain, we choose what pieces of this information we use, and what we let to pass by.
The real-time decisions of how we choose what pieces we use, are made automatically, using the fast thinking brain processes, defined by our established value system.
The way we perceive the world, the things we learn and know, are all limited by our existing beliefs and past experiences.
We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.
— Anaïs Nin
No two people look at the same thing in the exact same way.
The shape of every person’s individual perspective is called the Reality Tunnel.
Every one of us has an individually unique shape of their reality tunnel.
We can share some aspects of our uniquely shaped tunnels based on our outcome in the Birth Lottery. In particular our deepest beliefs and the sense of identify are inherited based on the year and location of birth. The foundation of our tunnel is defined by the culture and the value system of the time and place of where we start our journey.
Other aspects of our reality tunnel are shaped based on our choice of friends, partner, profession, and the Tribes we join.
Depending on perspective, the reality tunnel either helps you focus on your goals and excel at what you do, or it distorts information and creates a filter bubble that lets people be ignorant.
We see the world as we are.
A reality tunnel is not static. In addition to the main shape of the tunnel, that’s defined by our learned biases, the tunnel is affected by some amount of fluctuating noise, which is caused by a multitude of different internal and external factors.
“You are not the same person at all times. As your mood varies, some features of your cognitive machinery vary with it.
If you are shown a complex judgment problem, your mood in the moment may influence your approach to the problem and the conclusions you reach, even when you believe that your mood has no such influence and even when you can confidently justify the answer you found.
In short, you are noisy. ”
— Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein
Here is how understanding reality tunnel can help you.
Empathy: You understand that every single person sees the world differently. Different people value different things. Other people don’t want the same things as you. Focus on finding what other people value, you will have much better relationships.
Self-awareness: You understand that you see the world in your own unique way. You don’t have to always agree with the status quo, you can have your own opinion. Sometimes your own judgement may be misguided. You can see your blinds spots, and improve.
“Consciousness, in this model, is not a passive receptor but an active creator, busy every nanosecond in projecting the art work that is an individualized reality-tunnel and is usually hypnotically dreamed of as The “Real” Universe. This trance, in most cases, appears as deep as that of anybody professionally hypnotized to repress pain during surgery.”
— Creative Agnosticism by Robert Anton Wilson
We’ll continue with maps and tunnels in Part 2.
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Until next time! 👋
May be I missed to understand-what’s the map here?