Like in Plato’s allegory of the cave most people are distracted by the shadows on the wall, mesmerized and hypnotized, taking reality for illusion and illusion for reality. Many defenses usually come up when someone can see the deception and points to the exit of the cave, trying to show us that we are distracted by illusion. It’s where psychology and mind control come in, for the mind controlled victims (as is most of society) don’t know that they are mind controlled and hypnotized. You can present endless facts and information to them but they will deny it and not able to SEE it, no matter how others point it out and ring the alarm clock. They may even attack, ridicule, and shame you for daring to question their limited reality box. Looking at the world as it is and facing objective reality that goes contrary to our ingrained beliefs can literally cause physical discomfort. There are various unconscious psychological mechanisms that keep us in an hypnotized state because truth and objective reality is too much too handle. The most common one is cognitive dissonance. Most of us seek consistency in our beliefs and perceptions. When presented with facts or information that contradicts our long-held beliefs which we are identified with, meaning they make up part of who we think we are and we have based our behavior and life-view on these belief, it can create physical discomfort in our bodies. This results in rejecting information because of the emotional trigger we experience and has nothing to do with if the information we are presented with is true or not. It’s a mechanical and unconscious reaction which shuts down our ability to reason and think clearly when confronted with information that conflicts with our beliefs. The more we are identified with beliefs the more discomfort we experience when they are being challenged. In the extreme case, a person suffering from cognitive dissonance will verbally or physically attack the other person who is challenging his/her beliefs. Rational discussion based on the information at hand is impossible if we don’t check ourselves how cognitive dissonance keeps us form staying objective.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 13:06:23 +0000