IS PERCEPTION OUR ENEMY?

We always look at the world through our filters of perception. Today we understand that the brain works more like a shortcut machine and perception plays a major role. Though artists knew this for ages. “How to look/see?” is the first thing that is taught to the artists.  Perception has many different meanings but here we will restrict our meaning to  “immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation”.

Everything in our life revolves around our perceptions. What we perceive something to be and not what is in front of us. A person’s perception creates his or her own reality and the truth. There are three important things we should know about our perceptions:

Perceptions are filters through which we see the world:

When you first started school, you learned that the shape shown below was the letter ‘a’. Whenever you saw that shape, you knew what it meant and the sound it made. It was not necessary to re-learn that shape every time you read it in a word. It could look like any of the shapes you see below, and you would still know it was the letter ‘a’ and that it represented a sound. In fact, you didn’t even think about the shape of the letter ‘a’ after you learned it. Your mind provided the information for you. You no longer really “saw” or had to think about the letter ‘a’.

Simply stated, this is how the mind processes information. It memorizes what a particular thing represents, like how the letter ‘a’ represents ‘a’ sound. It’s important that your mind does this. Imagine what would happen if every time you came to this letter you had to relearn what it meant!

Let us look at some of the perceptions that creates our world:

Bank: An entity which has lots of money and is there to help people with money.

Doctor: A selfless, polite and helpful person to help you during sickness.

Bankers: Bankers are smart people who know all about money.

Company: Manufacturing goods with high quality and standards.

Politicians: Politicians are there to solve problems of the population.

Rich person: This person dedicated his life to achieve things and thus helped the society.

Perceptions are powerful:

Perceptional filters will filter the information without even letting you know what is happening. Perceptions will not change until something drastic happens. These filters will not allow you to see things objectively, even if it is right in front of you. Let us look again at the  perceptions that creates our world.

Bank: Banks don’t have money and they offer  products to make profits.

Doctor: They saw more money in this profession else they would not be paying huge donations for admissions in medical college.

Bankers: If bankers knew all about money, then why are they stuck in their job’s.

Company: Manufacturing goods at the cheapest possible price to maximize profits.

Politicians: Politicians have no idea how to solve anything. They are good at politics and it is of no use to anyone except themselves.

Rich person: By getting rich that person was not trying to help anyone, it was  for their own selfish reasons.

Perceptions are very hard to change:

How much time do we spend, to understand how the other profession works? None. Our lives will revolve only around our profession and friends. Chances are that most of your friends are also from the same profession. Essentially you and your friends lives revolve around the same things. We are in a rat race and we never look up to see what else is happening around us. So we use our perceptions to guide us in other matters e.g, money = bank/banker etc.

Perceptions are there to help you to decide on things without thinking much. The sad part of life is that we never look beyond ourselves. So, none of the perceptions will change until something really drastic happens.

So, what does all of this mean. The first thing we need to realize is that our brain shows us things that are memorized and not what is in front of us. When you look at something your brain provides the memorized patterns. You see what you perceive it to be and not what is in front of you. On this blog we will be challenging all kinds of perceptions. Thanks!

* When a post or article says that everyone is good, bad, corrupt etc, that does not mean everyone but most of them. It is just an exaggeration trick employed here just like in newspapers, TV shows and magazines to get your attention. Thanks.