615 Sat Aug. 22nd Reality: are we creating it?

REALITY: ARE WE CREATING IT?  the Zen perspective will answer :yes.

That is one of the ultimate questions of philosophy and cognitive science, and the answer depends entirely on how you define the words  “existing, real, fictional, truth”.

I will not talk about realities that we experience from our sensorial imputs such as what we see, hear, et… If you see a tree in front of you or you feel pain, the tree and the pain exists and is real.  

However if you look at thoughts, they  occupy a strange middle ground: they do exist but their contents can be real that is true or simply  fictional.

Here is the breakdown of how to look at it with a Zen perspective:

1. Thoughts exist as physical events:  probably over 100,000 /24h/7)

From a neuroscientific standpoint, a thought is a completely physical event.

• It is a specific pattern of billions of  neurons firing in your brain simultaneously .
• It consumes measurable energy (glucose and oxygen).
• It is generated by electrical signals & neurotransmetters.

If you watch your ownfMRI machine, we can literally watch a thought happen.

In that sense, a thought is just as real as an existing event such as a heart beat or a muscle spasm, or a nice scent.

2. What about the content of our thoughts ? Are they real, truthful or fictional 

While the act of thinking exists and is real, the content of your thoughts can be truthful or fictional. Our  brains are essentially a prediction machine, constantly generating narratives, scenarios, concepts, beliefs, judgments, or assumptions to name few.

• The time machine: Thoughts about tomorrow or yesterday are very frequent but  entirely fictional constructs. The future doesn't exist yet, and the past is just an edited memory file stored in your reptilian brain (  hippocampus)
• Our judgments: Thoughts like " James is stupid" or "I'm going to fail" or “ this flower is ugly’ are, too often, psychological biases, illusions, and mental simulations, all coming from education, beliefs, experience, ect..  They are not based on objective facts, and,  unfortunately and too often , we forget about this critical element. In this light, thoughts are like movies playing in a theater. The spectators, projector, the screen, sounds, and the light beams exist and are real, however the story & characters  happening on the screen are usually fictional.

Is there a danger in mistaking  fiction from Reality:

The human brain has a very bad habit of treating the content of most of its thoughts as real and truthful. If you think, "There is an intruder in my house" your body triggers a real adrenaline rush, even if there is nobody. 

This is why many psychological traditions (like cognitive behavioral therapy and Zen philosophy ) focus heavily on learning to be mindful of the contents of our thoughts, that is to draw a line between what is true and what is fiction.

The goal isn't to stop thinking which is impossible, but to realize: "My anxiety about next week event is an existing/real feeling, but its content meaning  next week event remains fictional  since it does not exist …yet

Your take home:  You can think of your thoughts as real illusions. They do exist, and  have power to  shape your behavior, and entire life 24/7, but you shouldn't believe everything they tell you. Learn to be mindful of your mind output like during meditation, meaning  to catch the content of your spinning thoughts and ask this critical  question: Is it based on absolute, proven reality or am I creating fiction in my daydream? It will save you a lot of problems in life.

A picture of a car is not a car, and yet our brain will called it…..a car. Why?

Pattern recognition from data memory stored in our reptilian brain is giving an "answer" ( car ) before

our cognitive brain can analyze the picture. The car in the picture is a fictional car.