It is interesting to think about the way we interact with the world. We've discovered that the way we experience reality isn't what we thought - it's primarily what we think.
I'll explain that odd sounding sentence in a bit, but first... Think about the experience of hearing your own voice on a recording - does it sound like you?
No! It doesn't sound like you - at least not what you "think" you sounded like! But wait, that is you. And to everyone else, it sounds JUST LIKE you. Talk about a mind trip.
What's the deal?
The memory of your voice, the way you've experienced it in the past, doesn't the match the way you experience it on a recording. Thus, you ask your friend embarrassingly, "Is THAT what I sound like?" Um... yes. That odd vibration of air is your voice home boy.
When we talk we hear our own voice through the air and through the bones in our head. These are two different ways of hearing. [FYI: You can learn about the science of what I am talking about here.] When you hear your voice on a recording you only it through one of those ways: through the air.
Hacking Reality
Using the example of your own voice and how different it seems on a recording, we can see how reality is altered by our experience. Everything we encounter in reality speaks to us in the subject voice of our own experience. Reality is talking to us through the air and through our bones. What does that mean? It means that our experience of the world is only partially based on what exists "out there" in the world, that's the part of reality we are "hearing through the air". The rest of what we experience comes from the way we "hear" reality from within ourselves. Meaning what we bring to our experience of reality (our past, memories, hurts, loves, feelings good and bad, culture, etc) dictate what we think reality is just as much (if not more) than what actually exists "out there".
Now imagine for a moment if there was a way you could "hear" reality, experience it, with out the noise of your own perceptions. Would we even recognize the voice of reality?
Fascinating to think about.
You and I experience reality subjectively through our own internal stories and unconscious patterns. And this isn't necessarily bad, unless we aren't aware of it. If we take this fact seriously we will begin to notice the sound of these unconscious patterns, an awareness that brings untold positive change to our experience of reality. Take some intentional time to appreciate both ways you are hearing reality (from within and without) and you will be in a much better position to hear things you've never heard before, even though you think you have.
Matthew Armstrong
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