Reality and Perception: A Model for How We Process and Perceive Reality

There is a reality for us to perceive and make sense of. How are we processing reality? How are we facing reality? Are we acknowledging the light and dark in ourselves and the world to see things as they are, or denying it to accept an illusion or delusion?

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Reality and the Senses

We have sensory perceptions from our 5 physical senses that receive information from our environment (from reality, existence). This is the first level of input.

Internal Processing

Next comes our internal processing and filtering in consciousness, our 6th sense. We have an automated 1st level preliminary comparison and processing where we can prejudge and filter information through prejudices, preconceptions, preferences, beliefs, wants, wishes, desires, and habits. This acts as an internal response stimulation from external stimulus, to be used for further processing and filtering.

There is a response from the alignment of our expectations, of the previous perceptions/conception vs. new perceptual/conceptual stimulus about reality.

Feedback

A "positive" or "negative" feedback with reality is felt and experienced. Negative feedback can be felt through emotional cues like fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, etc. This is the beginning of the cognitive dissonance process, where there is a disequilibrium internally as a result of disequilibrium between reality and our perception of reality. We are now in disunity and disharmony internally.

Is there a conflict/contradiction of new vs. old/accepted info?

If we do or don't, do we choose to question and doubt the new or old info?
Are we curious about the veracity of new or old info?

If we have no conflict, we are in harmony (although we can be fooling ourselves).
If we have conflict, we are in disharmony.

In either case, do we ignore further analysis, or do we dig deeper in analysis with critical thinking?

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No Conflict Felt

If we ignore analysis while we didn't have a conflict, the new and old info didn’t create dissonance, and was accepted without further evaluation.

We are uncritical and have somewhat of a blind belief in what is presented as reality.

Our perception of reality is of reality as it appears, but appearances can be deceiving. This is why processing more through critical thinking and analysis is required. A useful model to do so is the trivium method of critical thinking (grammar, logic, rhetoric; knowledge, understanding, wisdom; input, processing, output).

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Conflict Felt

If we ignore analysis while there is a conflict, then we continue in cognitive dissonance and engage in reality negotiation.

We believe what we want to believe and engage in self-deception as an arbiter of belief as "truth". We sustain, maintain, and protect beliefs and desires.

We reject contrary evidence, such as is done with the cognitive bias called the back-fire effect.

We remain bound in attachment to a belied.

We excuse, justify, deflect, dismiss, avoid, ignore, deny, refuse and reject the truth/reality.

Our perception of reality is based on our beliefs as "truth". Beliefs become our reality.

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a negotiation with reality required to maintain/sustain our illusory sense of self or worldview. The ego-personality-identity defenses protect our self-concept from dissolution. We can’t admit our wrong, and when confronted about it, it leads to embracing the wrong more.

New information is rejected through the "backfire" effect or other cognitive biases and fallacious thinking, and the wrong belief is held onto more dearly. We can condition ourselves to believe in, and love, the things we suffer for.

It is kind of like a Stockholm Syndrome towards untruth. We get mind controlled by falsity, and live our lives accordingly, suffering and loving it, defending our suffering. Our attachment to untruth brings us our self-inflicted suffering, yet we don't care about that self-abuse, and choose to keep loving our self-delusional negotiation with reality.

We can remain attached to falsity, lies, deceptions and illusions, unable to process contradiction well. We remain attached to lies we use as a basis for our identity. In our ego attachment, we choose beliefs over the truth. The logical processing capacity is diminished, and therefore accepts contradiction and ignores the truth. Logic is the art of con-contradictory thinking.

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Critical Thinking and Imagination to Recognize We Can Be Wrong

If we choose to dig deeper and question things more, to doubt and be curious, then we engage in the voluntary 2nd level deeper internal processing with logic.

Critical thinking and imagination is used, where we can imagine we can be wrong in order to verify if we are, through critical self-reflection, introspection, analysis, self-examination, etc. This allows us to find errors and links between data to understand more about ourselves (consciousness) and reality (existence).

Logic

Logic-thought feedback with the 1st level processing of grammar-thought and grammar-emotion.

We evaluate, judge, discern, asses, analyze, identify and process more deeply than the prejudicial automatic 1st level of processing, for more accurate judgments and conclusions.

We can hold off on our decision to conclude something is real by accepting it as possible. We then form a perception of a possible reality.

We can accept the input but still doubt it to conclude something is probable. This forms of a perception of probable reality.

We can verify the input and accept it as what is real and true. This forms a perception of reality as it is, where our perceptions are in alignment with reality, where our map of territory matches the actual territory. This allows us to be grounded in reality. To not be free-floating in the clouds of fantasy imagination that doesn't have a verifiable link to the ground of reality.

Thinking Better

Critical thinking, trivium method, imagination, wonder, curiosity, questioning, doubt, etc. is the path and way of facing the truth in reality, the good and the bad, the light and the dark, the beauty and horror.

Thinking about things will empower ourselves with accurate perspectives and positions on the "game board" of life. We can process contradictions and choose the most accurate results that conform to reality. We can be free thinkers who change our self-concept, worldview and behaviors instead of altering perceptions to fit false preconceptions and attachments to falsity.

If we have not given previous thought to -- or understand -- how we function, how our thinking functions, how we process data-input-knowledge in our psyche-consciousness, then we might be processing data incorrectly and arriving at erroneous conclusions about what 'is' real/true.

Learning about critical thinking processes, logical fallacies and cognitive biases are good ways to improve our ability to think and form accurate conclusions. This allows us to improve our decisions making process, and make less mistakes in life.

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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