How reliable is our mind?
Mona Lisa has the answer.
Have you ever looked at the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci?
If you haven’t, or if you have forgotten how she looked, please have a look here. I want you to notice the emotion she portrays.
When a group of people were asked to look at the Mona Lisa and share their thoughts, some said that she was smiling, some that she was sad, some believed that she was faking a smile. This happens all the time.
Why do different people sense different emotions from the same piece of art?
It kindled the curiosity of many scientists. Their research says -
The mood that we are in while looking at the art, affects our judgment about the emotion that the art portrays. Those who say Mona Lisa looks sad might actually be in a gloomy or not-so-cheerful state that day. Those that think she is happy, are actually happy themselves.
Did you have a look? Is she sad? or Is she smiling? Or just neutral?
The Mona Lisa is the most confusing piece of artwork. That also makes it a masterpiece like no other. And the creator - Da Vinci was a genius just because, he knew how to trick our sense of vision.
Meaning, our Sense of Vision is not fully reliable.
It is always colored by our emotions, experiences and biases.
You don’t even have to go look at the Mona Lisa to feel this fact for real. Just look out your window right now. You see a flat ground. Then the Earth must be flat right? No. Because science has proven that the Earth is not flat. Now we know this as a fact because we are enjoying the knowledge attained from hundreds of research done by many scientists. But before that? Flat Earth was our truth. It was/is our eyes deceiving us into believing so. Because there is always a limit to what our eyes can see.
This is just a sample into how our brains come to conclusions with the minimum amount of information available to it. And this is not just with our vision, but the same with the other senses too.
There is always a limit to what we can see, hear, feel, etc.
We understand things around us using our senses and memory.
And how reliable is our memory?
Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories.
She says- “We believe that human memory is like a recorded cassette and we can recollect the exact memory whenever we want to. But no. Memory is a reconstructive process — Every time we recollect our memory, we are also helplessly modifying it based on our current knowledge about the situation. It is like a Wikipedia page — You can change it and so can others.
The extreme price is probably paid by the innocent criminal defendants. More than half of the erroneous accusations of an innocent prisoner in the world, is due to the faulty memory of the witness. Not because the witness is lying. But because the witness’s memory is not perfect. Nobody’s is!”
Our memories are not concrete and they can deceive us.
Now think about our brain. Poor thing! With the help of our imperfect memory and our not-so-perfect senses, the brain has to perceive things and has to arrive at any conclusion/decision about any situation/person. PHEW!
But do we recognize/acknowledge this imperfection in ourselves?
How sure are we every time we believe strongly in something? Take religions for example, we know for sure that our religion is the best regardless of which religion we belong to.
How sure are we to think that the other person has gotten it all wrong when the only difference between us and them is the perspective? Why else would there be religious riots?
We were wrong:
When we believed that stars were our ancestors guiding us from above;
When we believed that the other person is stupid and we know better;
When we judged someone based on their behavior, religion, caste, gender, nation;
To…
When we believed that we were in total control of our lives until COVID-19; And
When we believed that mental illness is not a real thing.
We were and we are wrong in all these instances!
This is just because the brain cannot perceive things that are beyond its capacities.
A person who has never faced any mental illness or challenges might not understand the reality of it completely. It is natural. We can’t know what we have never experienced. But what is wrong is to remain in the darkness of ignorance forever and not willing to learn. Sadly this mentality is stopping us from helping each other in need and growing together.
These misunderstandings can be taken as Ego. But these are also merely the lack of knowledge — Knowledge about the subject we judge and most urgently the lack of knowledge about ourselves.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali talk strongly about being skeptical of our senses and our memory. And that, the right knowledge and letting go of incorrect knowledge (Avidya), is the key to the ultimate truth and getting past our Ego.
But we are not doomed by the limitations of our senses and Science has proven it time and again. Otherwise, we would still have not known that stars are just big balls of fire and not ancestors shining upon us from above.
The idea of this blog is not to encourage self-doubt or mind control. But rather, to help ourselves be more aware of what we think and how there is this imperfect tool behind our thoughts. Of course, the human brain is the best of tools that evolution has yet seen. But faulty nonetheless. If we all could remember this, we could all be less sure that we are always right; And would it not reduce wars and the need to bully or the urge to put down somebody else just because they think/act differently?
Most importantly, would it not help us understand someone else when they are in distress without judging them? And help them beyond the differences we share?
Namaste!
