From outside the box

We are all hiding a secret from each other. In fact, most of us hold this secret so near and dear to our heart, that we even hide it from ourselves.

There are things in life we know to be true, and there are things in life we believe to be true. The mistake that most humans make is when we assume our beliefs to be knowledge. Sometimes we do that based on common sense. If we have never been to Europe and we fly there on a plane, we don't really "know" there is a Europe because we have never directly experienced Europe, but common sense tells us that our belief in Europe is logical because so many others have had direct experience with Europe and testify to the fact that it exist. Therefore, we're not going to worry about our plane landing in the ocean where there should have been a Europe, but there isn't. Still, until we experience Europe first hand, we don't really know it's there, but it is logical to assume it's there, logical enough to bet our lives on it.

Where we are fooling ourselves is in the areas of philosophical, spiritual, and cultural beliefs. We start assuming things to be true that we have not had a direct experience with, and often, nobody else has either. Sometimes a few people will testify to a direct experience, such as getting abducted by aliens, but when were talking about something as amazing as aliens, or ghosts, or near-death experiences, or astral travel, or personal savior's, we need more than a small percentage of the populace to have had a direct experience in order for us to assume it's true based on the logic of so many others having had the experience.

In truth, we believe a lot of things we don't know for fact. I believe in reincarnation but I don't know it's a fact because If I lived before, I can't remember it. And since I haven't had the direct experience of remembering, I have to be honest and say I don't really know, but the idea makes more sense to me than anything else I've heard. I also believe in a unified universe, that all things in existence are connected, nothing is separate. That belief however, is being tested and proven by science. But still, it's a belief, I don't really know that to be true. I also believe that aliens are visiting this planet, I believe in ghosts, angels, miracles, synchronicity, and aura's. But they are only belief's, maybe true, maybe not.

We assume many of our beliefs to be a fact based on our "feelings" about that belief. We feel that our feelings validate our beliefs, but do they? Is a phobia a validated fear? It's based on very strong "feelings". But what is valid about being afraid of a garden spider? How often do you "know" somebody is mad at you, based on feelings or intuition, only to find out later that you totally misread them? The problem with investing so much faith into feelings is that often we misread our feelings.

When I was a Christian, I "knew" Jesus was not only my savior, but He was savior of the whole world, wether the world knew it or not. Later in life, I "knew" being vegetarian was good for everybody, wether they knew it or not. I think we turn belief into assumed knowledge because we hold a vision of a certain thing so close and personal in our minds eye, that we loose our ability to see the difference between reality and fiction. Besides, we all want validation for what we believe, but since we can't prove that belief to be true, we rely on intuition, belief, emotional experience, and the testimony of others who we have invested our trust into.

Deep inside we know, we all consciously know, when we are presenting a belief as a fact, and this is the "secret" that we keep from each other as well as ourselves. This is the elephant in the room that we all keep quiet about. We really do know that we don't know, but we have put so much into the script of our story, we're not going to change it, and often, we couldn't if we wanted to because of deeper feelings of guilt and fear.

In my life, I've known a lot of things. The older I get I find the less I know. I still have my beliefs, but at least now, I know the difference.