The Thoughts that Mind forgot
Ever wonder how accurate our memory is?
What if what we think of as our past was just an imaginary construct, a cut and paste job of selected events filtered by our perceptions and managed by our ego.
Take yesterday for instance, I was walking along and suddenly everything became crystal clear, the theory of accumulated error, the moments in time when small tiny details, motivations and decisions blossom into deeds . The linear progression of life, mapped, connected, plain for all to see.
All one must do is connect the dots.
But if memory is subjective and reality a construct who's to say that these dots that seem so clear in retrospect aren't just another manifestation of our ever astonishing capacity for self-deception?
Is memory a factual representation of the past or a convenient collage, designed and shaped to fit our preconceived notions of the way things should be.
Are we figments of our own imagination?
Would we know if we were?
Conundrum ensues.
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd
Alexander Pope
"Obviously, the faster we process information, the more rich and complex our models or glosses – our reality-tunnels – will become. Resistance to new information, however, has a strong neurological foundation in all animals, as indicated by studies of imprinting and conditioning. Most animals, including most domesticated primates (humans) show a truly staggering ability to "ignore" certain kinds of information – that which does not "fit" their imprinted/conditioned reality-tunnel. We generally call this "conservatism" or "stupidity", but it appears in all parts of the political spectrum, and in learned societies as well,..."
Robert Anton Wilson Quantum Psychology
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A parallel can be seen in the psychological concept of confirmation bias - our tendency to notice and assign significance to observations that confirm our beliefs, while filtering out or rationalizing away observations that do not fit with our prior beliefs and expectations. This helps to explain why reality tunnels are usually transparent to their inhabitants. While it seems most people take their beliefs to correspond to the "one true objective reality," Robert Anton Wilson emphasizes that each person's reality tunnel is their own artistic creation, whether they realize it or not.
Source Reality Tunnel@ Wikipedia
List of Cognitive Biases @ Wikipedia
Credits: Blue bar graphic : Odhinn