Humans: Expert Illusionists.

Introduction

Let me start this article by playing a simple game with you

Can you find the link between trees and papers?

Well, this is an obvious answer. Of course, papers are made of trees.

You're right! alright that was fun lets have another one

Can you find the link between sand and glass?

Science students can answer that, again the answer is not that hard to find, glass is mostly made out of sand.

Great! but What if I ask you about the link between Samurai swords and Japan's nuclear reactors? Can you calculate how much time would you spend on wondering and focusing on empty thoughts or searching to find the right connections that would make sense to you? 

Well, It could take a while because we normally don't have or use this kind of a connection in our daily conversational or analytical lives. This concludes that a missing link definitely exists that previously fails to connect Samurai swords and Japan's nuclear reactors together and we have a gap between these 2 information which are stored in our brains.

But just like these two random objects, how many more missing connections that are not linking information together can you count?

Probably uncountable!

Why does this happen? 

- Unanswered questions

- Beliefs forced by our parents or culture

- Learning without applying

- Forced beliefs due to social pressure

etc...

The Hermann Grid illusion

If you haven't encountered this illusion before take a moment and look at the grid in the figure above.

You notice that your eyes detect blury grey circles in the white spaces between the black boxes but if you try to focus your sight on anyone it would disappear!

Why does this happen?

It's a simple answer with a detailed scientific proof which I am not going to discuss here. In summary this optical illusion is a result of the high contrast between 2 colours on a grid close to each other and the weak mechanism of our brains attempting to recognize and simultaneously focus on both colours at the same time; the white spaces and the black boxes.

This results in creating an illusion of grey circles appearing in between the extreme colours forcing us to think that they really exist.

Hermann vs Brain Analogy

Our brain is in constant search and storing of information, especially when it is in under the influence of our parents, culture, friends, media, education, further education and the environment around. All of the previous factors and more contribute in adding to our knowledge increasing the number of information stored in our biological database.

The brain stores information based on association, the information is encoded and stored in a specific location inside our memories. The better we are in storing and retrieving information (Improved by exercising our memories) the better we are in accessing and linking this information together.

But what is really happening? 

Without being aware we are continuously storing information without linking any of what we store together, these stored information will look like this:

The color red indicates the location where an information is stored.

If we take a piece of paper and decide to map and resemble what our brain is doing to the information being stored on a paper grid, we will find out that the brain is naturally creating what would be close to a biological Hermann grid!

Where the black boxes on the Hermann grid represent information stored in specific locations in our brains and the white spaces represent the lack of information; pathways that fail to connect these information together!

How does this affect us?

Ever wondered why this equation is true?

Happiness = Expectations - Reality

Unfortunately, like our eyes being fooled with the imaginary grey dots that appear between the white spaces and the black boxes on the Hermann grid, our perception of reality is also fooled by the discrete accumulation of informations stored in certain confined regions together with the absence of enough links connecting these informations together, creating false assumptions and false illusions in the true situation of our present, in the accuracy of our past memories and the expectations for our future.

Leading us to either disappointment or excitement.

This is extremely stressing and highly dangerous to our psychological and brain health.

What should be done? 

1- Never try to focus on assumptions you try to make to yourself, things or others given by your mind about the past, the present and the future. Because most of the time they are nothing but imaginary grey circles of illusions.

2- Have a yoga or a meditation class once in a while! the more attentive you are to your internal cognitive self (what yoga teaches) and your external environment, the more you are able to develop such connections between dis-related ideas and information.

3- Know what is exactly contained in your black boxes (Information, memories) and your white spaces (The missing links) in your biological hermann grid (Brain) and try to find the correct links or relationships between them.

Remember:

The more you link things, information and memories together
The less confused you will be
The less you are likely to have illusions or make false assumptions about your past, present and future.
The more you will be able to see the world and your life in its true unbiased colours.

4- Increase your knowledge but at the same time apply this knowledge to your daily life and create links between information stored in your brain as well as your senses.

5- If you are not sure about the right link that you should establish between 2 random information always ask the people around you for their different opinions and existing links.

The more you ask the more you will have options to chose between links. Your brain will always chose the link that is more convincing to you; which is the easiest route which has the least resistance to connect and transfer signals between your information. 

6- Exercise your memory.

Conclusion

As shown below in the pictures, when you integrate enough links in the hermann grid and analogously have more neurones connecting stored information in your brain, the illusion of the imaginary grey circles tend to disappear! and the more we are in a state of mind that is closer to reality. 

A reality that is clear, lacks illusions and rejects false assumptions.

                         

Thank you for reading.

iGammoh


TRXQZ979EJM3

War and Beauty

Introduction

We all observe, we all analyze, we all tend to see things in a different way than the world forces us to. But, we never gave them enough importance and value, because we were programmed not to. My ideas are in everyone's head but the world is a scary place, if one doesn't follow what everyone is doing the fear of the unknown and the fear of being left out is more than what we can handle. Or at least, what we think we can handle.

But let me tell you one thing my friend, if anything I learned from my very short yet rich life that I have been gifted with is that the human body, brain and spirit are tools of infinite power, infinite tolerance and infinite capacity.

You think you may not be able to handle something you are scared of, but again the keyword is "think", it's all in your brain, and the mind can be reprogrammed to change this way of thinking. What makes us different? the choices we make, the different ways and choices that we chose to wire our brains. 

If everyone undergoes similar ways of upbringing, similar education, similar further education, wouldn't we all end up having similar dreams?similar fears? similar ideals? similar goals and similar personalities?

If your answer is no, then consider this question, why are we competing over things we have created? 

Yet again, this is the third article I write that revolves around peace and stems from theidentities problem.

We think we evolved and we became less racist, but what have we evolved into? we have evolved into individual identity racist. 

WE ARE WHAT WE THINK_

Let me start this article by this quote of mine:

"He who doesn't acknowledge the faults within, appreciate them, love them and is willing to learn from them could not be possibly able to appreciate any of the beauty that he or anyone or anything this world posseses." 

How many times did you blame anyone for something wrong you did or you failed to do? how many times did you fight with someone over something you "assumed" they thought or felt or said about you? or even better, how many times did you assume that the person sitting in front of you loves you, appreciates you, hates you, or is attracted to you? 

Well, many times, don't deny it here as well, not in my article! Let me start by saying that all these things you felt, assumed, thought or experienced about what the other person sitting in front of you might feel, assume, think about you are all in your head. In other words:

- When you assume that the person you're talking with is an asshole, well, how would you know what an asshole is without being one? 

- When you assume that that person has feelings for you, know for sure that you have feelings for them.

- When you see that all the world around you are full of ignorants, then you're the ignorant one for not trying to understand them.

- When you assume that that person is intelligent, then know for sure that you're the intelligent one for understanding what they're saying.

- When you assume that that person is judgemental and stupid, then know for sure that your limited mind has fooled you and made you judge that person which made you feel stupid.

and so on..

Your Labels and Your Brain Status

If that label your mind gave you is on the negative side, then know that the problem is in you. In my opinion you are not getting what that person is trying to say, you dont understand the way they're saying it in, and you may have some missing links.

If that label your mind gave you is on the positive side, then know that your mind pursues to become like that person. Here, your brain is in a changing process, not yet stable, not yet peaceful.

If your mind didn't give or project to you any labels when having a conversation with that person, then know for sure that this person is perfectly compatible with you and you MUST befriend them so that you'll walk the journey of life together, learn and experience together. If you're like that with everyone then know for sure that you have a peaceful mind and you're in the process of developing positively your brain.

But this is really tiring, why do we always have to give labels, define and categorize people and things? well, first it's how our mind was programmed to handle stuff throughout our lives, it's really a defence and attract mechanism, we are obliged to identify anything that passes by, it is the war of identities, the psychological war of survival.

That's why we pursue our evil desire (our emotional black hole) to obtain more identities to ourselves. These days, the more the "globally desired" identities we posses the more powerful we think we are, the more we are shielded, and sadly the more the world think of us as being powerful. 

But seriously, where is the beauty in that? unless you love psychological wars, consider them necessary and totally love what the world is going through right now you will disagree with me either because you simply weren't in the weak spot which billions of people are in right at this moment, or you are simply in denial that this is happening. but if you are that person, answer this question:

What is the source of the wars we have with ourselves and others other than the (not so apparent) identities we give to ourselves and others? 

You're an educated individual, coming from a high class in society, with a good reputation and money, why would you hang out with or talk to a homeless person?

Well unless you're open minded and you seek value in everything and everyone you simply can't!

Have you ever done that? if you have, then congratulations you have an amazing brain my friend and I really want to meet you. 

The Increadible Transformation 

Well, there is good news, brains can be rewired and our way of thinking can be changed! How can we start doing it? how can we start valuing everyone like we value ourselves? well, it's a hard but not an impossible process. Here we go:

The more peaceful you are the more you will see things to be beautiful around you and the more you will find beauty in people, and it is in fact such a great feeling and life to have. So why don't we reverse this phenomenal equation?

originally it is:

The more peaceful you and your brain are = The more beautiful things you see, the more beauty you see in people.

Why don't we make it this way:

The more beautiful things you see, the more beauty you see in people = The more peaceful you and your brain are.

Everyone has at least one beautiful thing that can be seen in their character or behaviour, even if there is nothing good coming out of that person, even if there is good coming out of that person covering the ugliness that is covering the good inside them.

But to convince you how much weak and unpeaceful we are try observing and thinking of these things: behind every anger there is fear, behind every problem there is worry, behind every fight there is strength, behind every judgement there is fear of being judged, behind every tear there is search for peace, behind every anxiety there is hope, behind every sad face there is desperation to be happy, and behind every smile there are many stories.

The Transformation Prerequisite

Before, we need to fulfil a prerequisite! the prerequisite is that we must see at least one beautiful thing inside us and stick to it, this will give us power and more power to see beauty inside other people.

5 major steps in which that can happen, practice and observe:

A- Find one thing that you hate the most about yourself, if it's not that clear, find a certain characteristic or behaviour that others don't like about you and hence makes you not like it or yourself in return. for example, it can be being too friendly, being too analytical, being too demanding, being too different in opinions etc..

B- Stop hating it, accept it and love it! 

C- Direct it towards people you don't know or things. for example:

- if you're too friendly, you are generally concerned about people and like to be involved in their lives, it means that you have a deep core that appreciates things, some people don't see it that way. So you need to direct it towards people who do appreciate it, these people can be found in hospitals (volunteering) schools, orphanages, elderly houses etc.. etc.. 

or

- if you're too analytical, and like to link things together, like to analyze, then direct it towards a bigger cause, not yourself, not other people, but it can be towards your work, courses, life in general, world issues, etc.. 

D- Step by step, you will discover that this trait that some people hated is actually doing you good! and is giving you a good feeling about yourself!

E- Keep doing this until the thing you hated before and you used to have wars with yourself about turns into the most beautiful thing you have, a trait that you wouldn't want to exchange for millions of dollars.

Your Transformation Outcomes

You will start experiencing these things gradually with time:

1-The more you see beauty inside you and appreciate it, The more positive energy you will develop in yourself (and you will feel it, it's a good feeling).

2-The more positive energy you develop in yourself, The more you and other people will feel it.

3-The more the people will feel your positive energy, the more they are comfortable and want to be close to you.

4-The more they are comfortable with you, the more they show the goodness and the beauty side inside them.

5-The more beauty they show you inside them, the easier it will be for you to see that beauty.

6-The more you see that beauty, the easier will it be for you to talk to them and the more positive energy you will develop inside them.

7-The more positive energy you will develop inside them, the more they smile at you and the more positive energy you will develop inside you.

8- The more the positive energy develops inside you, the more the beauty you will see inside you and appreciate it, and you will go back to step 1 and this repeats itself.

So Why don't we turn our wars into beautiful peaceful experiences? and if we are aiming for that, we have to start with ourselves first. 

Change comes from within, it's only when we change ourselves that we can direct and make healthy changes in other people, things and global issues.

Conclusion

Our goal is ALWAYS peace, and as long as we never have internal peace, we will never have an external one.

So far this has been the 3rd article about the importance of peace and the impact of its absence, and there are more to come. 

If you don't have enough inspiration yet then keep remembering all the great ones; our prophets, they all went through some time when they had nothing in their lives not even food or water and they were able to be peaceful and survive with it! and were able to change the way they and the world think for a very long time. 

May all your wars blossom into beautiful experiences and lessons.

Thank you for reading. 

iGammoh