One Apple A Day #1206

I'll believe it when I see it.

Vintage eyeglasses clipart, accessory illustration psd. Free public domain CC0 graphic. View public domain image source here

I'll believe it when I see it.

How often have you said that?

It's the conviction that we can know reality only through experience, our own or the ones of others that we acquire in the form of data or facts.

But is it truly possible?

Is our knowledge of reality so objective?

First of all, reality as a whole is unknowable. What each of us calls reality is just our own experience of it. So, there are gaps in our knowledge of which we don't even know the vastity. To function without being overwhelmed by those gaps, our minds fill them with beliefs.

So, we know large parts of reality only through beliefs.

But our system of beliefs and assumptions also defines how we experience reality. So, even what we learn about reality through experience, direct or indirect, is conditioned by our beliefs.

We should then acknowledge that in almost every aspect of our life, we first believe it and then see it.

Accepting that is the first fundamental step of any truly transformational journey.

If you don’t believe it, check out The Monkey Business Illusion experiment below to see how our beliefs define what we see.