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The Soul Illusion



The Rodney Dangerfield of philosophical questions:

When a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, is there a sound? 

It gets no respect, because it seems to be one of those pointless questions that has no answer.  But there is an answer - an answer with profound spiritual and practical implications.  

 



No, there is no sound!

When the tree falls it produces a series of pressure waves in the surrounding air. The ear drum converts these waves into a mechanical signal which is transmitted by 3 small bones to the fluid filled cochlea - the spiral bony canal of the inner ear. Hair cells of the cochlea are the actual receptors. Each is tuned to a particular frequency of the fluid waves. Hair cell vibrations are converted [transduced] to electrical impulses, and transmitted along the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex where intensity and frequency of the vibrations are mapped. Neither pressure waves, physical movements of body parts [bones, hair], nor electrical signals are sound. What we call sound exists only in the mind of the perceiver.

Perception differs qualitatively from the physical properties of the stimulus. The nervous system extracts only certain information from the natural world. We perceive fluctuations of air pressure not as pressure waves but as sounds that we hear. We perceive electromagnetic waves of different frequency as colors that we see. We perceive chemical compounds dissolved in air or water as specific smells or tastes. In the words of neurologist Sir John Eccles: "I want you to realize that there exists no color in the natural world, and no sound - nothing of this kind; no textures, no patterns, no beauty, no scent."  Sounds, colors, patterns, etc., appear to have an independent reality, yet are, in fact, constructed by the mind. All our experience of the natural world is our minds interpretation of the input it receives.

 

Optical Illusions

In the classic text, Principles of Neural Science, Eric Kandel observes: 

"The organizational mechanisms of vision are best demonstrated by illusions.  Illusions illustrate that perception is a creative construction that the brain makes in interpreting visual data....Learning does not prevent us from being taken in by these illusions."

An illusion is responsible for the voluntarily selection of a path that predictably leads to sorrow.  The lessons learned from painful experience do not prevent us from being taken in again and again.

Our logo, at the top left of this page, was composed with this in mind. It is the Greek letter: psi, which represents the psyche [the soul], surrounded by a figure that illustrates the illusory nature of perception.  [Please visit: Illusions of Perspective for more optical illusions].


Perceptual Bias is Invisible to the Perceiver

The abuse of a loved one looks different after anger has given way to regret. In hindsight, the anger was temporary, and its cause trivial. Looking back through the filter of regret, the abuser may experience guilt, and vow never to repeat the destructive behavior. But the next time the abuser is in an angry state the local provocation will not seem trivial, nor will the local perspective appear temporary.

Because perception is a construction of the mind, our biases are invisible to us and so we are taken in. When angry, the abuser is not aware that his perception is biased by his local emotional state. His subjective reality is state dependent, but he does not appreciate that. To him: "She is always taking advantage of me!" Later when he perceives the same situation in hindsight – when feeling contrite - he wonders, "Why do I always hurt the one I love?" 

Objectively, we can see that both anger and contrition bias local perception. But subjectively, in real time, we think we perceive unchanging reality - the bias is invisible to us.  The failure to appreciate that perception is state dependent is part of the Soul Illusion.

State-Dependent Learning and Memory

State-Dependent Learning is shown in the laboratory by the following observation: Rats who learn to run a maze when drunk perform better when tested drunk than when tested sober. Rats who learn when sober perform better when tested sober.  What is learned in one state may have little influence on the performance exhibited in a different state.  Likewise, memory is state dependent - when sad it is easier to remember sad events than happy ones.

Like sadness, the experiences of success and failure are states or "trancesthat influence perception, motivation, and performance.    Failure, for example, is a state associated with certain feelings, response tendencies, and attitudes.  These state dependent phenomena produce poor performance and so there is a recursive nature of such states.  Failure tends to beget future failure; on the other hand: Nothing succeeds like success!

Illusion of Certainty

Because we feel certain that our current perspective is objectively valid, we are not able to fully appreciate that what seems to be a good idea now will seem foolish later.  There is some conjecture about what causes us to feel more certain than we should that our current perspective is valid.   One interpretation: When acting in real time we function best when we feel certain about the appraisals that gave rise to the action.  According to this view, selective construal - the feeling of certainty about the validity of our current perspective - is an integral part of real time experience. 


Review

Motivation, perception, and response probability distributions are all state dependent, and so they are constantly changing according to local conditions.  Despite the continually changing bias, we operate with the feeling of certainty that our current local appraisal is valid and warrants action. 

We make the same blunder again and again, despite repeatedly learning the lesson that the first lapse was a mistake.  We do not profit from this expensive education, because we are biased by local conditions at the crucial moment.  When decisive action is required to prevent an obvious disaster, we see no danger.


A Clinical Tale

During our first session, Mr. Lickfire told of repeated self-destructive relapses. After each one he swore: "I've learned my lesson this time, and I will never make that mistake again!" Each time he really meant it, and yet each vow was eventually followed by a lapse, and each lapse by regret. Now, in my office, he is about to do it again.  He is not stupid, and is aware of his history, yet he makes the same mistake again and again. Why?

Key elements from Lickfire's story:

1) His vow is worthless - although he is genuinely committed to it when he makes it.

2) His appraisal of the costs and benefits of the lapse is different afterwards than it was just before the lapse. 

3) High-risk states for Lickfire include stress [particularly anger and frustration], and temptation [immediate access to the drug].

4) A lapse produces immediate gratification, and he learns that the outcome of lapsing is reward. This learning is bound to the state in which the lapse occurred

5) Later there will be a price to pay, but he will be in a different state when he pays it. The lesson that the lapse is ultimately punishing is bound to the remorseful state, and so will not available to Lickfire during future high-risk states - e.g., when anticipating getting high. 

6) Each painful lesson will seem frustratingly familiar, and he will not understand why he keeps making the same mistake [now the powerful biases of the high-risk state are unavailable to him].

7) Ignorant of the Soul illusion he torments himself by attributing his long and frustrating history of failure to personal inadequacy.  And he feels a certainty about his current appraisal of his personal worthlessness and of the hopelessness of his situation.

Escape from this demoralizing pattern is so difficult, not because behaving successfully requires more strength than he has, but because his definition of success changes with local conditions, and he is blind to his changing motivation.


 

 

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I remember the time I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father.  He said he wanted more proof.

- Rodney Dangerfield


 

 

 

 

 

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

- Henri Bergson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you meet The Buddha on the road, kill him.

  - The Buddha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists?  In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.

  - Woody Allen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.

- Simone Weil
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be devoting my life to finding the real killer of  my wife Nicole and Ron Goldman.

  - O.J. Simpson

 

 

 

 

 

It is the enemy whom you do not recognize who is the most dangerous.

 - Fernando Rojas

 

 

 

 

 

I never had imaginary friends when I was a child, I just thought I had.

- Strange de Jim


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It is usually possible to discern a structure to people's difficulties in which internal states and external events continually recreate the conditions for the reoccurrence of each other."

  - Paul Wachtel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...You can fool some of the people all of the time...

- Abraham Lincoln