How reasonable would it be to alter one’s own perceptions? Say, for example, one sees an apple falling as a sign of gravity. How hard would it be to change this perception to that of a sign from God?
As a more reasonable and useful example: say that two people are living together in a committed relationship. Person A nags at person B to help clean up their house. B perceives the nagging as a way of A to merely irritate B. How hard would it be for B to change their perception so that it is instead seen as a plea, done out of love or desperation, rather than the more malicious alternative?
And, if this change in perception is possible, what procedures would it entail?
It’s almost impossible to brainwash yourself. It only works when a big group of fanatics start fueling your subliminal desporations.
Example:
prob:
“I’m so scared of death. I’m so weak and temporary. I’m so small. I’m so alone and meaningless.”
and then…
solu?:
“God loves each and every one of you. He loves you even more then you love yourself. He gave his son so that you could live. He has the power to save you. He cares about his creations. etc.”
^ The reason why people believe in it is because they really want it to actually be that way…
~
You already have logic, and how can you use C.R. so that logic restructures and warps other logic? You can’t, that’s why you can’t bullshit yourself very easily… [atleast I hope you can’t…]
But… A strong fear or strong lust can defeat logic and restructure it…
You can’t really change the way you think unless you want it. Change in humans has to be fueled by some motivation, a thought of a reward if you will (be that a spiritual or a material one).
But the thing you talked about is actually quite familiar to me. I’ve been unhappy about my reactions with negative things. For example if my sister’s child hit or bugged me I might respond very fiercely. Or that I easily lose my temper during arguements. Because of that I’ve been actively trying to change my view on the events and my behaviour.
I don’t see it as denying my true self, I don’t really believe that all of us have a “true” personality (Yeah I like cultural psychology, not forgetting biological aspects of course). Just a framework for it.
And little by little I’ve been making progress. Or maybe I’m just growing up, who knows since I’m merely turning 19 this september. Even so I have no intention stopping to to actively try to build (or reconstruct if that’s your cup of tea) me a better life.
As a future psychology student I especially love active suppression of negative thoughts and turning them into positive- Kinda like bombing my exams was really for the best
