Human beings are social animals. Our sociability is based on delusional concepts that sometimes conflict with reality. Most of us never realize it but accept those social constructs. We stress out but don't really understand why we are stressing out.

We experience reality all the time. Not most of the time, All The Time.
We learn social patterns as we age. We adopt those ideals into our lives as reality but they may not be reality. We convince ourselves that they are.

Reality: Human beings are animals.
Delusion: We are something more than an animal.

Eating, breathing, sleeping, removing waste, reproducing and many other things that animals do in reality are done by humans. We place delusions upon those functions to give them significance. My body needs nutrients to function properly. Its my delusion that I have to eat a nice juicy rib-eye to get them. People survive on nutrient injections.

Reality: Our bodies need certain things to survive.
Delusion: We have to enjoy the things we need to survive.

Social structure is based on the concept that one person's understanding of reality applies to all within the social group.
The concepts of wealth, possession, power, rights and control, too many to list, are all based on a delusion of reality.

Reality: The only thing you actually have influence over is your own body and mind.
Delusion: Everything else.

Reality: You are alive.
Delusion: Life has a meaning

No, I am not saying your life has no meaning. Some delusions are vital to us because we are social animals.
What I am saying is that LIFE does not require meaning for it to be.

An infant senses no meaning for life but is alive all the same. As it grows in its social environment it acquires a sense of meaning from interactions with external stimuli. If it is physically maintained without external social stimuli it will remain alive as long as its body gets what it needs to function.
You say, "well, that is no life to lead". Ah, I agree but it does not mean it is not still alive.

Reality: There is no wealth, possession or power.
Delusion: Social expectations of grandeur.

Ever heard of the saying "You can't take it with you"?

Consider this:

The Caveman Delusion by Tom



I wrote that on another site a few years ago. The point is that social orders are based on delusions that we substitute for reality.

When delusions and reality conflict the reality always wins because it is reality. Our delusions cause us to have conflict. Remove the delusional thoughts and reality is easier to deal with.

This being a discussion forum,

I ask if anyone here can relate their own moments of clarity where the delusion is removed in favor of embracing the reality?

How did the clarity you gained affect your life?

Could you ever return to the delusional thinking once the delusion is revealed?

Are there any delusions you removed that you wish you hadn't?

Reason for edit: BBCode markup for clarity and isolation

It's kind of like the story of the blind men and the elephant. Everybody sees their own version of reality. But in reality, we are all deluded.

Agreed

What I also understand is that we, as social animals, need some delusions to interact with our societies.

If you live in temperate climates the reality is that you don't need to wear clothing. If you go out in public butt naked you will get arrested. Thus to remain free, you must wear clothing in public. In private clothing is purely optional.

Questions:

I ask if anyone here can relate their own moments of clarity where the delusion is removed in favor of embracing the reality?

How did the clarity you gained affect your life?

Could you ever return to the delusional thinking once the delusion is revealed?

Are there any delusions you removed that you wish you hadn't?





My Answers:

I don't know if I would classify it in terms of 'delusion/reality', but I have had many epiphanies in my life.

one that stands out above all other is when I Was younger and my two older brothers got in a terrible fight over something. It was a serious physical fight and they were pissed and didn't talk for several days. Then one day, I came back from school, and there they were laughing and playing ball. My moment of clarity was in that moment what a waste of 'time' anger played in our lives. My whole life, I have tended to only anger briefly before moving on, leaving me the reputation of being 'laid back' with most who know me.



Another was the first time I dated inter racially. I was not 'attracted' to his paler skin or his thinner lips, but I was attracted to his charisma, his confidence, his smile and his sense of humor. My moment of clarity during this was the realization of how complex 'attraction' actually is and how within every individual, there will be some things that I'm not necessarily 'attracted' to , but along with it (unless I have convinced myself its not possible) some things that I am.


Another time was when I was a volunteer at a senior citizen home and the director accused me of stealing and threatened to call the police. I had no need, or desire to steal. I had not stolen. However, it HAPPENED that I was one of only two minorities on the volunteer crew. We were both accused. Even though they found no stolen property on me, she threatened to detain me until police arrived. This epiphany taught me that those in authority are imperfect and capable of being dead wrong as well. IT taught me that peoples preconceived ideas can 'convict' you even when you have done nothing wrong. It also taught me how fortunate I was to have my own authority(my mother) who knew the rights and laws that I did not to put that authority in its place.

Yes!! I deluded myself to believe I was happy in my marriage...lol..
But the reality was quite the opposite..
Lol...
Once the light comes on.. it's hard to go back to the dark...yup

To me most of what you call 'reality' are the delusions. The signs of someone who's disillusioned in life and has lost a positive outlook. Someone who looks at what is through filters of that disillusion. That, or someone who's simply never experienced a glimpse of reality, of what truly is possible. But not with that mindset.
Also the way many old and/or poor ppl see things. Kind of understandable as the older generation often lived to work, not worked to live. Not because they wanted to but cos they had no choice. (Over here that was the generation of my grandparents and before.)

Wonderful responses, everyone.

I think its pretty fair to say that we all see reality in our own way.

The associations we fasten to reality give it clarity in most cases. So reality is essentially what we say it is. Except when it doesn't cooperate with us.

An example might be:

We associate the Earth in a certain orientation. Our maps are printed in that associated orientation. North is on top and south on the bottom. When we see a map of the Earth upside down we become disoriented for a minute.



In reality it is the same planet. Our associations with reality demand that it be as we know it. Those associations are not wrong but we see the upside down Earth as wrong.

In the same association we think the Sun is above the Earth because we see if move across the sky over our heads. In reality by rotation and revolution around the Sun, it is to the side of Earth.

We are taught what love is supposed to be by our social associations with others. When love does not fit into those associations we tend to think it couldn't possibly be love. The reality is that love is not in reality at all. It is intangible, just like all the other emotions we experience. We place values on intangibles and try to use them to navigate reality and things get mixed up. The associations don't match. We expect another person to operate with our exact associations but the reality is that we are all our own person with our own associations. The closer the associations match ours the more love we feel for them.

Here is something I can't figure out about some people?

Do you name inanimate objects and treat them like they have a personality?

Do you name your car?
Why?
Do you talk to it?
Why?

Its not a pet or a person, its a car.

What other 'things' do you name and talk to?

Your phone?
Your computer?
Your pillow?

i m new heree

i m new heree

What if the things you believe to be reality are delusions?
At what point can you be sure that your reality really is reality?

I prefer to think of reality as a scientific proof rather than imagining a Matrix fabrication.

Since everything we sense is actually interpreted by chem-electrical signals in the brain everything could be fabricated. Indicating that there is no body, no structure and no Universe. Only chem-electric signals in a matrix. At that point does it matter?

However, for the subject of this particular topic we are looking at the delusions that we tell ourselves that misguide us in emotional discomfort or crisis. A focus on oneself attempting to remove delusions so clearer thoughts prevail.

State the delusion and attempt to identify the reality the delusion was obscuring. It makes dealing with the reality a bit easier and effective.

I would choose a different word to apply to what I believe you are talking about.

I suggest "conceptual structures." Or perhaps, in this computerized era, "virtual components."

I have seen that many people do indeed have delusions mixed in with their conceptual tools and structures, and that since almost no one is directly educated to be made aware of the difference and the danger of substituting delusions for conceptual tools, that we all suffer a tremendous amount of trouble from each other as we go.

Morality is a good example of a conceptual tool that we use, which is NOT a delusion, in and of itself. It IS artificial, to be sure, but it is only a DELUSION, if we forget that it is us who constructed it, and then award it magic powers of some kind.

I havent yet read the whole thread but this is what stood out as one of the things I think about on this one of my favourite topics. Nice to see others indulging in it.

I tend to believe we can slip from delusion to reality and back again when we slip between treating our thoughts as absolute truths and possibilities which I think we do often with out noticing

Hahaha...delusion.


In some ways that are obvious, in other ways that aren't.
Sometimes mistaking clarity for greater obfuscation and delusion, and vice versa.


Sure.
And it's just as easy to replace delusions with clarity that is then covered or influenced by new delusions.


I have no guarantee any delusions I removed were entirely removed, were delusions in the first place, or weren't actually helping clarity in another area, removing delusion in one place can easily cause delusion in another.

I find this very accurate.

The fact is we like our rock(s). The rock made us feels good, happy, smile whether it was based on delusion or not. Wouldn't it be delusional if we think we don't like it? Or ignoring/denying that feeling?
I think the best thing a men can do is pick/imagine your own favorite rock, don't let other men choose it for you. And try not to hurt others to get that rock.

Those are conflicting statements.

"We like our rock." Implies that we think we like our rock.

"If we think we don't like our rock." Doesn't that indicate that we don't?

No matter how we 'feel' about the rock the reality is that it is just a rock.

It will always be a rock. It will never be a cheeseburger, a cow or a waterfall. Just a rock.

After we die, it will still be a rock. It was a rock before we found it and if we misplace the rock it is still a rock wherever it ended up.

WHO are these people who like rocks?

Are you deluded ?