This week's article is the second in a six or seven week series. Each week, I'm publishing one of the chapters of a document I'm in the process of writing; a 'manifesto' for what I call "The Thought Revolution". The later chapters of the manifesto will include a vision of our future as individuals, businesses, societies and as an entire species. Here's chapter 1…
The Thought Revolution
Manifesto
Chapter 1- The Cause:
A Fundamental Misunderstanding
“All wars are created from thought.”
Sydney Banks
Philosopher and author
Overview of chapter 1
As unlikely as it may seem, the cause of most of our problems as individuals, businesses and entire societies lies in a false belief (referred to here as the “outside-in misunderstanding”). The outside-in misunderstanding is a simple misperception about how our experience of life is created. While our technological sophistication is progressing at a dizzying rate, the outside-in misunderstanding has kept our habitual patterns of thinking stuck in the middle-ages. In the 18th century, mistaken beliefs about the causes of illness led doctors to do things that look hopelessly misguided from the perspective of modern-day medicine. Similarly, the outside-in misunderstanding leads to many of the most serious problems we experience as individuals, businesses and societies; problems which will be resolved as we start seeing through this misunderstanding, individually and collectively. The outside-in misunderstanding is to 21st century psychology what ignorance of germs and bacteria were to 19th century medicine, with even greater implications for humanity.
Our societal habits of thought are rooted in a medieval superstition
After the first world war, the mathematician and engineer, Alfred Korzybski, insightfully observed that, while the technology of war was progressing rapidly, the social structures and habits of thinking that gave rise to the war were not. In the nearly 100 years since his insight, technology has evolved at a dizzying rate. Today we have computers, mobile phones, hydrogen bombs, microwave ovens, life support machines, social media, genetically modified food and more. Our technology is accelerating month on month, but meanwhile, our societal habits of thought still have their roots in the middle ages. Why is this?
The superstition is a misunderstanding about how our experience of life is generated
The reason is a superstition which we can call the “outside-in” misunderstanding. The outside-in misunderstanding is a mistaken belief about where our experience comes from; a perceptual “trick of the mind” that gets reinforced by conditioning from a variety of sources. In it’s simplest terms, the outside-in misunderstanding is the mistaken belief that our feelings are coming from somewhere other than our thinking in the moment. This simple but deceptive misunderstanding is at the root of a huge number of extremely serious problems that we face as individuals, organisations and societies, ranging from stress and anxiety to to terrorism and war.
This life-damaging misunderstanding exists because we get deceived by our own perception
Why do we tend to believe that our feelings are coming from somewhere other than our thinking in the moment? Because that’s how it appears, seems and feels. Consider this paragraph from my book CLARITY: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results (© 2013 Jamie Smart):
Many toddlers have a security blanket or teddy bear. This is what psychologists refer to as a “transitional object”; something that “gives” the child a sense of comfort and security in times of change or uncertainty (e.g. bedtime). Of course, we know that the blanket or teddy bear can’t actually “give” the child a feeling of security or comfort; those feelings can only come from within the child themselves. It just seems to the child as though the feelings come from the transitional object. But it doesn’t work that way. It only works one way; inside-out.
While it’s easy to see the outside-in misunderstanding in action in the case of the toddler’s security blanket, the illusion is much more compelling when it comes to the security blankets (and the ‘insecurity blankets’) we attribute our feelings to as adults…
- We book a holiday in the sun, and it appears like our feelings of excitement are coming from the future holiday
- We get stuck in a traffic jam, and it seems that our feelings of frustration are coming from the traffic, the other drivers or the appointment we’re running late for
- We get an unexpected financial windfall, and it feels like our sense of elation or security is coming from the money and what it makes possible for us
- We get cheated, and it feels like our sense of anger and betrayal is coming from the other party’s behaviour
- We fall in love, and it seems obvious that our deep feelings of connection are coming from the other person
But just like the child’s teddy bear, these phenomena that lie outside of us in space and time can’t possibly “give” us a feeling of security, insecurity, frustration or comfort. Those feelings can only come from within us. It just seems to us as though those feelings come from the external ‘objects’. But it doesn’t work that way. It only works one way; inside-out.
Human progress reflects our ability to see through false appearances
It looks, sounds and feels as though our felt experience comes from somewhere other than our thinking in the moment, but it’s a trick of the mind. This ‘optical illusion’ of the senses can cloud our judgement, impair our performance and lead to stress, misery and unnecessary conflict. The development of human knowledge over thousands of years is a record of our ability to “see through” this kind of false appearance and perceptual trick:
- Highly-educated people used to ‘know’ (i.e. mistakenly believe) that the earth was flat, because that’s how it appeared. But it never worked that way. The earth was always spherical.
- Well-informed scientists used to ‘know’ (i.e. mistakenly believe) that the sun went round the earth, because that’s how it looked. But it never worked that way. The earth always went round the sun.
- The best doctors on the planet used to ‘know’ (i.e. mistakenly believe) that illness and disease were caused by miasmas (bad smells), because that’s how it seemed. But it never worked that way. Illness and disease were always caused by germs, bacteria and other factors that were invisible to people before the late 1800s.
The flat earth, the geo-centric universe and the idea that illness was caused by bad smells is each an example of a false appearance which was once held as true. A false appearance that we’ve since transcended. The modern world is built on the insights of visionaries who saw through such misunderstandings and had their perceptions brought more closely in line with how nature already works.
We’re living in the feeling of our thinking in the moment
Most people on the planet today ‘know’ (i.e. mistakenly believe) that there’s a strong link between external factors and the feeling state we’re in; that our feelings and state of mind from day to day are the result of past experiences, future prospects and current circumstances. But it never works that way (despite appearances). We’re always living in the feeling of our thinking, moment to moment. While many people would concede that their thinking has at least something to do with their felt experience, what we’re pointing to here is subtly but profoundly different:
1. The creative principle of THOUGHT is generating our personal experiential reality, moment to moment. THOUGHT gives rise to our perceptions, our thinking and our feelings.
2. THOUGHT is a principle in the same way that gravity is a principle. Just as you were born into gravity, you were born into THOUGHT.
3. The thought-feeling connection is a psychological constant. We’re always living in the feeling of our moment-to-moment thinking. Thinking and feeling are a single unit; two sides of the same coin.
4. 100% of our felt experience of life is coming from 100% of our thinking in the moment. None of our feelings (i.e. 0%) are coming from anything other than our thinking in the moment.
5. The moment we mistakenly believe our feelings are coming from somewhere other than our thinking in the moment, we’ve slipped into the outside-in misunderstanding and lost touch with reality. This happens to all of us on a fairly regular basis, and is the cause of the most serious problems we face as individuals, organisations and as an entire species.
6. THOUGHT is creating your personal experiential reality, moment to moment. Fresh new thinking can show up in any moment, and when your thinking changes, your reality changes.
7. You don’t have to ‘do’ this or make this happen; fresh new thinking is automatic and natural for you. The only thing that’s ever preventing it from happening is habitual patterns of superstitious, outside-in misunderstanding. The ultimate leverage point for freeing yourself from the ravages of this outside-in superstition is to deepen your understanding of the principles that create our experience of life.
At first, it seems unlikely that such a seemingly-trivial issue could represent the source and solution of our biggest challenges
The statement that “we’re living in the feeling of our thinking” seems plainly wrong to some people, simplistic to others and “true but trivial” to others. On the face of it, it seems unlikely that something as seemingly-trivial as a misunderstanding about where our feelings are coming from could be the source of such problems as stress, anxiety, addiction, war or terrorism. It seems similarly implausible that resolving this misunderstanding could solve the biggest issues we face, and pave the way for us to realise our greatest potential as individuals, organisations and as an entire species. But history tells a different story. When the physician Ignatz Semmelweis insightfully realised that infections were being caused by “something invisible” (germs and bacteria) on doctors’ hands and instruments, his colleagues dismissed his discovery as trivial and insupportable. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (a tenfold reduction in the incidences of childbed fever, for instance), Semmelweis’ contemporaries were unable to see the truth of his discovery. It was several decades before the medical orthodoxy started to catch up with what he had insightfully realised. As the medical world started to see through their misunderstandings, and realise the truth of germs and bacteria, the infant mortality rate dropped, life expectancy increased and many devastating afflictions were eliminated for good.
The outside-in misunderstanding is to 21st century psychology what germs and bacteria were to 19th century medicine
Today, we live in a world that would have seemed impossible from the perspective of the 19th century medical paradigm. Simple but fundamental misunderstandings about the cause of illness and disease meant that many afflictions (such as childbed fever, smallpox and polio) were an unalterable fact of life. Illnesses and diseases that were the scourge of the ancient world have been drastically reduced or even eradicated thanks to a deeper understanding of how nature already works.
The outside-in misunderstanding is to 21st century psychology what germs and bacteria were to 19th century medicine. Our ability to ‘see through’ this mind-made illusion, and have our individual and collective perceptions brought more closely in line with how nature already works represents an extraordinary possibility. As we continue to close this gap between how nature works and the way people think, we have an unprecedented opportunity to create a world that’s as extraordinary from our current perspective as our world would have been from the 19th century perspective. A world where many of the afflictions listed in the Introduction (Eg. War, crime, alienation, addiction, poverty etc) are a distant memory.
In chapter 3, we’ll be looking in detail at how the outside-in misunderstanding causes each of our biggest problems. Chapter 3 also contains an outline vision for a possible future, free from this medieval misunderstanding and more aligned with the nature of life. But first, it’s worth having a closer look at the solution to the outside-in misunderstanding. This is what we'll be exploring next week in Chapter 2.
You can deepen your understanding of the principles that create our experience of life by exploring the CLARITY videos, audios and articles here at www.JamieSmart.com
To your increasing clarity,
Jamie
Author of the #1 bestselling book, Clarity: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results