Prophecies

Nearly five weeks in and I’m starting to wonder if it’s real; the pandemic, that is. Am I like Alice in Wonderland, having drunk something peculiar and entered an alternative reality? Perhaps I am in The Matrix, cleverly deceived into thinking of my experiences as real. Well, every experience is real, of course, but how do we make sense of those experiences and from them construct a coherent picture of reality? What is really real?

Since my blog post about Perspectives, I’ve wondered about the ways people are interpreting this globally shared experience of a viral attack (if it really is shared; how do I know?). Some seem to think that there is a manufactured crisis and that we are being played; that we need to wake up and stop being deceived.

There is a feature of perception called ‘perceptual set’ whereby we see what we want to see. There have been lots of psychology experiments demonstrating this and it does indicate how easily our perceptions can be guided; manipulated even. Advertisers have found such psychological research invaluable, as have governments, of course, and anyone with an axe to grind who has access to the tools of mass communication. And there are many axes, ready for grinding.

Sometimes messages are ambiguous. There have been some interesting playful examples circulating on social media of how people see the colour of the same dress differently or hear a spoken word differently. The ‘how’ and the ‘why’ intrigues us, and we want to know which is the ‘right’ answer. In cases of genuine ambiguity, of course there is no right answer.

A particularly vivid example of this occurred to me while watching a film the other evening. The film was called “The Leisure Seeker” starring Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren. It’s one of the current genre of films for baby-boomers, dealing with topics like ageing, bucket lists, retirement, grief, independence, death. It struck me that the film (beware, spoiler alert) possibly contained two slightly different messages: one, that we should hang on to our independence to the bitter end and live life as we wish to live it; or, two, that you should take your death in your own hands, disappear and release those on whom you’ve become a burden. Depending on our political views we might read the film quite differently. 

Also, without knowing whether one of those messages was intentional, I am likely to choose the message which best suits my own feelings about being older (I’m still thinking on that one...) However, if one of those messages is intended, how important is it for me to know which one and to know the motivation behind it? 

Applying the same critical eye to another film, “Captain Fantastic”, (yes, we’re having regular film nights these days, thanks to Netflix) the idea of non-conformity seems to be challenged. It subtly conveys the idea that to step away from the mainstream is unsustainable and dangerous. It’s done very sweetly, appealing to north-western/American values of freedom, autonomy, right-to-bear-arms, wilderness..... I don’t think the message is particularly ambiguous but it is clever in how it conveys the idea that ultimately might is right (for ‘might’, read ‘status quo’) without completely crushing those illusions about free will. Is this a case of the film industry being utilised to ensure compliance? Probably. 

The scary thing about perceptual sets (biases, stereotypes, prejudices) is that we don’t all see the world in the same way - our realities are not the same. And what happens when we are presented with an alternative view? Very likely we feel disoriented, upset and angry, maybe; confused, paralysed, galvanised into finding support for ones own view and defeating the other. Very few people are comfortable living with ambiguity, at least where it impacts on one’s life in important ways. For example, is the official response to this pandemic an effort to protect us or to subjugate us? That’s a question keeping lots of us awake at night.

There is another aspect to perceptual set. It’s the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. Again, Psychology has revealed many examples of how human behaviour is influenced by the expectations of others such as parents, teachers, managers. This phenomenon is known in spiritual practices as ‘manifestation’, the bringing into reality by attention and focus, like healing for example. ‘Prayer’ is another word for it.

Without falling headlong into Subjectivism, I do believe that it matters hugely how we look at the world; that we actively create what we see, whether through prayer, meditation or just expectation. Our realities are what we make of them. We have enormous power including the power to transform pain and suffering - to grow out of it. My son taught me that when I was trying to heal a spinal injury. Our transformative powers can change the world. If we choose to see love and kindness, love and kindness grows just as if we choose to see malignancy, that grows, too. Fear feeds itself, but believe in the good and good is what you see.