Why Did I Do That?
In his book, The Art of Mastery, Peter Ralston explains how actions relate to perception: “Your actions are determined by your perceptive-experience… whatever action your mind thinks is called for in relation to what you perceive, that is what you will do, and you have no choice about that.”
I think this is a powerful statement, and as such it deserves dissection to really understand what he’s saying.
Photo by Thomas Aeschleman on Unsplash
First of all, let’s look at what is meant by ‘perceive.’ In our normal, default way of thinking about the world, the one we learned from our culture, perception is about detecting and interpreting what is ‘actually there.’
This definition of perception relies on the following premise: all of us assume that we live in a universe in which we are temporary visitors and which would be the way we perceive it to be whether we were here or not.
Quantum physics, however, informs us that the world exists in a superposition of possible states and that it doesn’t settle into the one state we are observing right now until we do so. In other words, we live in an observer-based reality and not a reality which essentially doesn’t ‘care’ whether we’re observing it or not.
In light of this information, we must look more carefully at what we mean by perception. If perception were actually about detecting and evaluating what is actually there, we would be aware in every moment of the superposition of multiple possible configurations of the world. And… we’re not.
So, perception is not the passive sensing of reality. It is rather the active choosing of one of the possible states of reality with which to interact.
Now, lest you think I am talking about a bunch of parallel worlds in a science-fiction context, let me explain what I mean by ‘possible states of reality.’
Think about the distinction between response and reaction. Again quoting Peter Ralston, “A response arises from a calm mind and sensitive awareness… A reaction arises from automatic impulses that tend to be motivated by such activities as fear, desire, resistance, vulnerability, anger, or other knee-jerk self-protective actions.”
In my book, Hoodwinked: Exploring our Culture’s Profound Illusions, I describe the worldview we humans have inherited from our culture in terms of an ocean of belief. We are like fish swimming in this ocean, and everything we look at is colored, filtered, and partially obscured by impurities that are dissolved in it. In the case of this ocean of belief, the impurities represent mistaken ideas, incorrect assumptions, and all the beliefs we hold which don’t reflect reality and which we have never questioned. For the most part, we are unable to see the world clearly due to these intervening impurities.
I would suggest that the vast majority of us, in this time of great upheaval, find ourselves looking at the world through what amounts to an ocean of fear and mistrust. For most of us, the moments of calm mind and sensitive awareness Ralston refers to have become few and far between. As a result, we have become reaction machines. When we look out at the world, we tend to see danger and difficulty instead of wellbeing and ease.
This viewpoint is the one reality of the innumerable possible states of the world with which we have unknowingly chosen to interact. And, as Ralston points out, it’s the one reality that determines how we act.
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash
Next time you watch the news or read a newspaper, try looking at the information presented as a report on the reality we have chosen, as opposed to how good or bad you think things are. Try setting aside all your judgements, hopes and desires, and see the reality we live in for what it really is. The reality we perceive, the one we have actively, though unwittingly, chosen, is being shown to us constantly by the actions people take. We take those actions because they are suggested to us by minds which are drenched in fear and anger. And once our minds have suggested those actions, we have no choice but to take them.
