Like balancing on a rope, delusion is a fine line between reality and optimism. You could know all the answers (hmm, do you?) and still be deluded.
In the one-million-dollar paranormal challenge created by James Randi, it’s clear how the human mind can deceive itself into thinking it knows things that it doesn’t know it knows. Let me tell you a bit more about that.
The paranormal challenge asks some acclaimed “powerful” people to prove that they have psychic/spiritual power. You could equalize that in Nigeria with your pastors, alfas, and priests. In about 51 years, over a thousand people applied to win the prize, but they were unsuccessful. Some of these challenges were broadcast live and failed. What fascinates me the most is this comment I found on YouTube.
“I am obsessed with the fact that not a single one of these individuals had the psychic foresight to predict that agreeing to publicly debunk themselves would destroy their credibility.”
When asked, some contestants said they probably never had the powers. That brings me to today’s topic: delusion.
When someone tells you, “You’re an animal.” Do you feel insulted or move on?
But, quite frankly, we are higher animals because we have refined our abilities to gossip and iterate on ideas. What you call a set of beliefs are ideas passed down to you from various societal institutions, starting from the family. And now that you’re older, NEW ideas pass through these foundational ideas you had. If the new ideas don’t align with your old ideas, you tend to show restraint. The big word for this is confirmation bias.
Delusion dances around the world of confirmation biases and uncontrolled curiosity.
- If you used to be successful, you could fall into the trap that you’re smart by default and not adapt to the world around you.
- If you got what you want in life, you could think it’s because you are the chosen one from 8 billion people.
- If life shows you hell, you could think it’s because you’re being tested.
- If you’re rich, you could think there’s no element of luck in your success.
No human is above delusion. Even a professor of a given topic can be highly deluded.
So, how do you manage delusions?
Before I touch that, you should know there’s intentional and unintentional delusion. For example, you could be fat and ugly but still dream of becoming a Vogue model. Don’t get me wrong, your dreams are valid, but this could be considered an intentional delusion until you prove the world wrong.
Ok, so how do you manage unintentional delusion?
2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Backward 🔗
In today’s modern world, it’s almost impossible to think your way out of wisdom. Even monks are consuming social content nowadays. See this hilarious example of an isolated tribe that abandoned its tradition after getting access to the internet.😀
The only way I’ve found to be unintentionally deluded is to take one step backward for every two steps forward. In anything you do, whether it’s going well, learn to stop and take an overall assessment by asking, “What am I even doing?”. I’ve found that to be the ultimate question that leads you to find answers to questions you didn’t even ask.
Also…
Controlled Curiosity 🔗
Life is as practical as it can get. The thing called GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) is your reality. You become what you see, read, and hear. If you feed yourself junk and old ideas, that’s what you become. Learn to question ideas, even if it’s coming from the people you admire. Read books that make you better informed of this life you’re in. Control your curiosity so that you can manage delusions like a champ.
If you’d like to appreciate the beauty of the planet you live on, read this short piece called the pale blue dot.
Summary - No one has all the answers