So now that we know why the news always report bad stories, let’s look at the implications it has on the human psyche. To do this we need to really dig into what this chapter is about, perception.
Read the below over a couple of times until you really understand what I am trying to portray. This is the key to this chapter, and in many ways, the key to understanding life. Everything I have talked about so far revolves around this:
‘The way that you perceive your reality, is your reality. Fact and proof have no bearing here. If you believe it is a truth then it is a truth until you yourself believe otherwise’
The coolest thing about this knowledge is that it places you as the observer. By looking from the outside in, you can begin to understand your psychology. If you do this without the overwhelming presence of your ego (essentially looking at life without heightened emotions or triggers from your past) you can question whether your reality reflects your truth. And what is truth? In the end this is up to you, but mostly, the truth is what you can see without influence and coercion from others. It is also what you see without influence and coercion from yourself.
How can you influence and coerce yourself? By letting previous emotional triggers (which are contained within those little 100 trillion neurotransmitters in your brain that were created around your experiences) and heightened emotional states get in the way of your objectivity. And this is where it gets exciting.
Once we observe our ego and look within ourselves, we can have the power to change our own perspective. It is only then that we are no longer driven by the machine, but instead, control it. From here we don’t see the world as good or bad, we just witness the balance between both and accept the paradigm.
Once this is done affectively, questions immediately follow old prior belief systems. Sayings such as ‘I am always depressed’, ‘the world is a bad place’, ‘people are evil’ and so forth may still pop into the mind, though they are closely followed with the question ‘why did I just state that?’ This is just the first question in a line of important queries which unravel how your mind works. Other questions which open up the mind revolve around ‘where did this statement/belief come from?’ and ‘does this statement/belief reflect my current position in life?’
By asking the above questions from a non-personalised or emotionally linked position, you can start to realise how much of your perception is tainted by previous experiences from your past.
The Lonely Spaceman 