Copied from: Reality tunnels: how to understand your operating system. | The Techno Optimist
Your Reality Tunnel
“Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas. A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘Universe’ – a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest; a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
– Albert Einstein
What’s a Reality Tunnel?
“Every kind of ignorance in the world all results from not realizing that our perceptions are gamble. We believe what we see and then we believe our interpretation of it, we don’t even know we are making an interpretation most of the time. We think this is reality.”
Robert Anton Wilson
From the wiki: ‘Reality tunnel (or belief system, world view, world model, reference frame, intentionality, etc) is a term coined by Timothy Leary – and popularized by Robert Anton Wilson – akin to the idea of representative realism. The theory states that with a subconscious set of mental ‘filters’ formed from their beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets the same world differently, hence ‘truth is in the eye of the beholder’. The idea does not necessarily imply that there is no objective truth; rather that our access to it is mediated through our senses, experiences, conditioning, prior beliefs, and other non-objective factors. The implied individual world each person occupies is said to be their reality tunnel. The term can also apply to groups of people united by beliefs: we can speak of the fundamentalist Christian reality tunnel or the ontological naturalism reality tunnel.
A parallel can be seen in the psychological concept of confirmation bias (the human tendency to notice and assign significance to observations that confirm existing beliefs, while filtering out or rationalizing away observations that do not fit with 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.
Wilson—like John C. Lilly and many others—relates that through various techniques, one can break down old reality tunnels and impose new reality tunnels, by removing old filters and replacing them with new perspectives on reality at will. This is attempted through various processes of deprogramming using neuro-linguistic programming, cybernetics, hypnosis, biofeedback devices, meditation, controlled use of hallucinogens, and forcibly acting out other reality tunnels. Thus, it is believed one’s reality tunnel can be widened to take full advantage of human potential and experience reality on more positive levels. Robert Anton Wilson’s Prometheus Rising[3] is (among other things) a guidebook to the exploration of various reality tunnels
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Language
” ‘Is,’ ‘is.’ ‘is’ – the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don’t know what anything ‘is’; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.”
Sigismundo Celine – The Historical Illuminatus
If we want to change our thinking, we have to upgrade the language through which we do our thinking. E-Prime is English without any form of the verb ‘to be’. Stream of thought will flow a lot more fluidly without stating absolutes through the verb ‘to be’. Conversation will run a lot more smoothly if you state something ‘seems to you’, rather than saying something ‘is’. It seems a much more conscious and responsible way of expressing ourselves. Some examples:
1A. The electron is a wave.
1B. The electron appears as a wave when measured with instrument-l.
2A. The electron is a particle.
2B. The electron appears as a particle when measured with instrument-2.
3A. John is lethargic and unhappy.
3B. John appears lethargic and unhappy in the office.
A strict deletion of ‘to be’ is not always necessary, for instance:
4A. John Lennon is the coolest Beatle.
4B. John Lennon is my favorite Beatle.
Belief
“Intelligence is the capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently. Stupidity is blockage of this process at any point. Bigotry, ideologies etc. block the ability to receive; robotic reality-tunnels block the ability to decode or integrate new signals; censorship blocks transmission.”
Robert Anton Wilson
If someone asked me what I think is the biggest hurdle in the evolution of the human species, I would answer “beliefs”. Beliefs build up fences around us, they maintain our ideological defenses and we defend them emotionally, not rationally. Most beliefs seem to be acquired second-hand through our families or surroundings without much examination and once installed, we stop thinking about them entirely. Completely stagnating ourselves in many areas of thought.
When someone challenges our beliefs on religion or politics, the brain goes into defensive mode, emotion takes over and reason may barely be accessed (if at all) when we start speaking. This is like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum because they are not hearing what they want. Belief systems are not just an easy way for the mainstream media and governments to manipulate people: there’s also a self-limiting impact that is not to be underestimated. If we want to consciously evolve, multi-viewed lateral thinking will get us a lot further than pushing ourselves into dead ends with linear thinking.
“We can all see how other peoples ‘Belief Systems’ makes them blind and ‘stupid’ at times, but we find it very hard to notice how our own ‘BS’ is doing the same to us. This is what anthropologists call ‘acculturalization.’ Following Gurdjieff, I prefer to call it hypnosis… Every politician knows how to induce hypnosis, and very damned few people on the whole planet know how to de-hypnotize themselves. The world is not governed by facts or logic. It is governed by ‘BS’ (Belief Systems).”
– Robert Anton Wilson
Start with yourself
“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.”
– The Talmud
If you want to upgrade the way you see the world, you will have to start by cleaning your own filters. Start by evaluating self-limiting beliefs. Work on your self-confidence. Expand your fields of knowledge by exploring your interests that you’ve kept in the back of your mind thus far. Challenge yourself by learning more about areas that often cause discord within yourself or in conversation, and gather as many perspectives as possible. If you line up these perspectives, you may sooner realize that you can not throw out all but one of them. This is the beginning of using many catmas – relative meta-beliefs or opinions – instead of one dogma.
How to see beyond ourselves
“In the province of the mind, what is believed to be true is true, or becomes true within certain limits to be learned by experience and experiment. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind. There are no limits.”
– John C. Lilly
Mere reading and learning may not be enough to break through our belief barriers, which can be stronger than we first assume. A state of relaxation seems to loosen the rigid defenses we put up against new information. Some methods to explore new ways of thinking include:
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Contemplation meditation. For twenty minutes, sit yourself in meditative position, or lay down, and explore a limiting belief you have. Explore any possibilities there may seem to eradicate it, circumvent it, and lessen its negative impact on your life.
- Visualization meditation. Simply visualize yourself vividly in situations you would like to see yourself in but seemed impossible before now. See it in first person perspective, and with yourself in the picture. Make the images big and colorful.
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Hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, and self-hypnosis tapes or mp3s are also an option. These techniques are simply a sort of guided visualization meditation in which the therapist’s suggestions will circumvent your own limits, and the open relaxation in which they are explored are less easily halted by your defenses.
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Acting. Fake it until you make it! You may find that acting out tweaked fictional versions of yourself will soon take on an existence that will start to feel very real.
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Controlled use of hallucinogens. It’s no secret that many people feel renewed after a mushroom or LSD trip. Through the correct use, guided in a safe environment, these tools give us a chance to enter a state of consciousness where we sort of hover over our own belief system like a helicopter. We see the limiting walls and ways out of the maze, and it breaths fresh new perspectives into our life.
What to strive for
“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.”
– Albert Einstein
The most ideal reality tunnel would be the most open one. ‘Believe nothing; explore everything’ is the main philosophy, so instead of travelling between many separate reality tunnels you create one that encompasses ‘everything’. Beliefs are just one’s own dogma, and they filter out too much of reality. Catmas are relative metabeliefs, or flexible temporary opinion; many of which can be held in one’s consciousness simultaneously, even if they are contradictory. This way we build a larger map of reality and thus a wider perspective. When you are able to open your mind to many differing and conflicting views that hold their own merit, there will be much less (or no) confirmation bias on your part as you are able to make many new connections. Consider ideas, ideologies, and viewpoints as toys. Sticking to one toy gets boring sooner or later, so keep the game of life fresh by exploring many toys. It’s always more fun to talk to someone who is willing to learn and explore than it is to someone who believes they know it all. Believe nothing: it is the highest form of intelligence!
-Ringo C. Dedroidify.com