Escaping the Psychological Feedback Loop
As within, so without, as above, so below, as the universe, so the soul.
Hermes Trismegistus
The Quicksand of Reality
For most people, the experience of reality is a trap. Some esoteric traditions refer to it as a “soul trap” — I like to think of it as the Reality Trap. Simply stated, reality is like quicksand that pulls you in and slowly suffocates and drowns you if you don’t know what you are up against. Scientists speak of an impersonal, objective “fabric of reality” that strictly obeys Newtonian laws of motion. But, in truth, reality is more personal than impersonal, and more like shifting sands, or even quicksand, than solid fabric!
Perhaps, for that reason, success in life is more about “going with the flow,” riding energy currents, or surfing energy waves than it is about strictly adhering to a rigid, fundamentalist doctrine, dogma, or limited set of rules. Of course, this is not to suggest subverting basic, universal truths and ethical principles, merely to rethink certain misconceptions we might have about the nature of reality.
Firstly, one must come to realize that what we perceive as reality is not objectively real. Rather, it is a projection of our minds. Our perceptions are largely subjective and driven by our state of mind. One may think of it as wearing shaded sunglasses, which tint our perceptions differently. A better analogy, I think, is to imagine our experience of reality resembling a movie projected by our imagination onto the movie screen of our perceptions.
Psychologist Carl Jung describes the process of psychological projection, which, in part, addresses this experience. It’s true that the (Jungian) shadow and subconscious induce psychological projection, which distorts our perceptions. However, there is more to it than just this rather abstract concept.
In very real terms, our perception of reality is determined by our state of mind. This is due to the measurable physical phenomenon in the brain known as sensory gating. The brain is bombarded with sensations from external stimuli, which are picked up by our eyes, ears, and other senses. There are too many sensations for the brain to process in real time, in fact. Only about 10-20% of the perceptions that reach the senses make it to conscious awareness; the rest either register only subconsciously or are discarded. The gateway mechanism in the mind that determines which perceptions are allowed through into our consciousness and which are denied admittance is known as sensory gating. It is a necessary mental function that prevents sensory overload, which might result in schizophrenia or autism if it fails.
When we perceive “reality,” we are experiencing the image constructed in our minds from the select 10-20% of all information reaching our senses that actually registers in our conscious awareness. It is a subjective mental construct — the product of our imaginations, created from a tiny fraction of the sensations that we actually experience, specifically, the few that we become aware of.
Sensory gating is, at least partly, driven by our state of mind, whether conscious or unconscious. We all have a predominant narrative “installed” in our consciousness, kind of like an operating system. This narrative, which we have somehow convinced ourselves is our de facto understanding of reality, plays a major role in shaping our subconscious preconceptions, biases, and prejudices. In addition to this narrative, there is our current frame of mind and our general outlook or attitude. The dominant mood we are in plays another important role in coloring our perceptions. Finally, there is our entire subconscious ecosystem, driven by any number of influences — past traumas, inherited trauma, our suppressed psychological “shadow,” etc. All these factors play a role in gating our sensations and, thereby, shaping our experience of reality.
As a result, we never really experience reality as it truly is, but only a limited projection created by our own minds. We each live within a bubble of our own perceptions, never really knowing what is truly out there.
The Psychological Feedback Loop
This is the truly insidious part of the human experience — perhaps the essence of the tragedy of the human condition.
Most of us are unaware of how our perceptions really work. We are unaware that our state of mind shapes our experience of the world through this selective process, and that this is often what determines the circumstances we find ourselves in. The truly tragic part of this equation is that our state of mind is frequently largely determined by our circumstances — our experiences shape our mood, psychological state, and condition.
And so, we find ourselves trapped in this insidious feedback loop — our frame of mind influences our experience of reality, while our experience of reality, or the circumstances we find ourselves in, in turn, influences our frame of mind.
Extending our previous analogy, we can conceptualize this situation as follows. If our mind is the projector, projecting the movie of our reality onto the movie screen of our perceptions and imaginations, our mind is also, simultaneously, the observer, viewing and taking in that same movie, those same projections, and, subsequently, interpreting them as reality, and then allowing this projected reality to control and determine our individual thoughts and beliefs.
This experience has both a positive and a negative trajectory. In very simplistic terms, for the sake of illustration, let’s say one is feeling depressed today for some reason — that one’s mood is clouded by depression, sadness, or anxiety. This frame of mind will affect one’s perception of reality, so the mind will project a sad, depressing, tragic “movie” onto the movie screen of one’s perceptions and imagination. Seeing this tragedy play out before us invariably depresses and saddens us even further, which, in turn, makes the “movies” our minds project even sadder and more tragic. And so, we become caught in a “downward spiral” towards chronic, clinical depression. If undiagnosed and untreated, it might even spiral out of control, leading to deeply tragic consequences.
On the other hand, there is such a thing as a positive feedback loop. If we are in an upbeat, happy frame of mind with a positive attitude towards life, we receive positive reinforcement from the universe that boosts our mood and outlook even more. Because our frame of mind is happy and positive, our minds project a comedy onto the movie screen of our perceptions and imagination, which, in turn, feeds our upbeat, happy mood even more. As such, our experience of reality becomes increasingly positive and happy, leading to better outcomes for us.
This upward spiral is obviously a better direction to move in, but there is more to the story than this simple dichotomy. Whether we are on an upward or downward trajectory in life, as long as we are unaware of how our thoughts influence our perceptions, we remain susceptible to the treacherous quicksand of the “reality trap.” And because our immediate circumstances are frequently out of our control, things can shift for us on a dime without our ever understanding why.
Escaping the Reality Trap
Negative experiences are as unavoidable as life itself. Even if one lives an entirely sheltered life, blinkered to the seamy underbelly of society or in denial of any darkness or negativity, in the end, negativity is unavoidable. The question then becomes: how susceptible are we to negative circumstances if and when they arise in our lives? Are we so fragile that the slightest negative, traumatic event immediately sets us off on a downward spiral into self-destruction? Or are we more resilient than that, able to recover from the bad experiences that hit us and find our way back to positivity and the light?
Building resilience to negative circumstances is key, and there are several strategies one can adopt to that end.
The most important factor, in my estimation, is simple awareness of how it all works — of how the “reality trap” operates and how our experiences and circumstances can be like quicksand, sucking us in and slowly stifling us out of existence. Too many people go through their entire lives spiraling into depression and defeat, out of control, and lacking the ability to do anything about it, simply because they lack the basic awareness of the psychological trap they find themselves in and how it works.
The moment one recognizes the mechanics of the reality trap, one can respond to it, taking conscious action to change one’s attitude, thinking, and inner state, thereby improving one’s circumstances. One can do some soul-searching or engage in Jungian shadow work to achieve deep inner self-transformation. One can incorporate positive practices into one’s life to address stress, anxiety, and fatigue, such as meditation, yoga, qigong, sound healing, and breathwork. One can lay the groundwork for deep psychological renewal and, thereby, achieve a real and lasting shift in one’s circumstances.
Ultimately, being positive and upbeat in life is a personal choice one must make, in spite of one’s individual circumstances. When one consciously chooses to pursue the path towards positivity, towards authenticity, towards the light, then one engenders, from within oneself, a positive shift in one’s circumstances. Then reality itself shifts in a positive direction, reinforcing and supporting the positive trajectory one has chosen. It isn’t easy to accomplish such a deep, lasting shift in one’s attitude and circumstances, and it doesn’t happen overnight. But with the right mindset and conscious determination to pursue the right path, one can achieve the shift.
Thus, to succeed in life, we must, to some degree, at least, become “surfers of reality.” We must learn to ride the energy currents of reality as a surfer rides the ocean waves. Again, I must emphasize that this is not about compromising one’s ethics and values; rather, it is about not allowing oneself to be boxed in by rigid dogmas and limited narratives, or by narrow, subjective perceptions of reality.
The Beacon of Consciousness
Human consciousness operates like a lighthouse or radio tower in the ether of consciousness, broadcasting a signal that ripples outwards into infinity. This signal is shaded by one’s frame of mind, attitude, beliefs, mood, thought processes, and so on. If one is angry or sad, the mind sends out a negative signal that conveys anger or sadness. If one is happy and upbeat, the mind, in turn, broadcasts a positive signal.
The universe, however, is not some idle spectator, looking on dispassionately at our random mood swings. Instead, the universe registers the signal one sends out, whether positive or negative, and responds in kind. Often, sooner and more immediately than one can imagine. For instance, someone driven by anger or hate, broadcasting it into the ether, might suddenly find that the world has turned against them, that they are, themselves, the object of others’ anger and hatred. On the other hand, someone broadcasting a signal of peace, joy, and love may find that the universe responds in kind, inviting the same from others.
This is not a strict rule, and one must be careful about the unfortunate tendency toward victim-blaming. Sometimes, depending on the randomness of immediate circumstances, one might find that the opposite rule is in play — that one is being targeted or bullied for no fault of one’s own, or that one is an unfortunate victim of random circumstance. However, as a general psychological principle, it applies at the macro level. Hostile, negative minds typically invite hostility and negativity from others and from the universe, because their expectations shape their outcome. Similarly, the opposite is also broadly true — positive minds typically invite a positive response from the universe and from others, for the same reason.
As such, we are ultimately the authors of our own destinies. This may not be true at a granular, day-to-day level, in which our immediate circumstances are largely out of our control. But insofar as we have the self-determination to choose our attitudes and responses to whatever circumstances we face, we ultimately shape our own destinies.
We have it in us to exercise our will, change and reshape our attitude and thinking, and transform our inner state. Through self-improvement and personal transformation, one can dramatically change one’s circumstances. One can shift one’s experience of reality in a positive direction because one’s reality responds to one’s inner state. The kind of person you are, at a deep personal level, ultimately determines the kind of life you lead and the reality you experience, for better or worse.
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