1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,960 Have you ever considered how the colors you see might not look the same to someone else? 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:11,280 Or how two people can witness the same event yet recount it completely differently? 3 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:18,320 What we perceive as reality is not always a universal truth, but a personal experience 4 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:24,240 shaped by numerous subtle forces at play here folks. And how do these perceptions impact our 5 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:32,320 understanding of the world and our interactions within it? Welcome to Life Unscripted where we 6 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:38,400 delve into the depths of how our perceived realities shape our lives and the world around us. 7 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:43,600 I'm Alan Stafford, your host and guide through the often invisible yet profound influences 8 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:50,000 that perception wields over our daily existence. In today's episode, we're exploring the subjectivity 9 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:55,680 of perception and its far-reaching implications from how we navigate our personal relationships 10 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:59,440 to how we interpret and respond to broad societal issues. 11 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:09,920 So why is understanding our perception crucial? I mean after a while aren't we happy with what we 12 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:18,720 perceive? Imagine navigating a ship, for example, with a compass that doesn't point north. Or if 13 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:23,360 you don't drive a ship or sail a ship, maybe you're driving your car where your navigation just 14 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:29,280 isn't working. Our perceptions could be just as misleading. And recognizing this can profoundly 15 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:34,800 impact how we interact with the world and how we interact with each other. Are we really responding 16 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:42,640 to the world as it is or as we see it through our uniquely colored lenses? And I'm talking about our 17 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:49,280 own worldview, our own point of view. So let's unpack these questions and more as we explore 18 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:54,720 how perception molds our reality and examine ways to broaden our perceptual horizons for a richer, 19 00:01:54,720 --> 00:02:01,680 more empathetic life experience. Alright folks, there's so much on this topic of perception. 20 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,720 I don't even know where to start. I mean a good thing I have an outline, right? If I didn't, 21 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:13,200 I'd just be all over the place, which I typically am anyway. But human perception, that's, 22 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:18,720 it's pretty wild. There's over 8 billion people on this planet. So there is over 8 billion different 23 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:23,520 realities. And what we're going to talk about reality and perception here as the podcast 24 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:30,800 goes on. But before we start, let's talk about what is perception? What's a basic definition 25 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:40,720 of perception? Assuming we can all agree on that. I only laugh because perception is not even a 26 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,560 objective, it's subjective. And I don't know if we can all even agree on perception. But I'm going 27 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:49,040 to do my best to give you some sort of basic description on how I understand it. And then 28 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:54,800 we'll go from there. So basically, perception is an active cognitive process, where our sensory 29 00:02:54,800 --> 00:03:01,040 input, you know, sight, the sound, the touch, the smell, the taste, all of this is interpreted 30 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:06,240 and integrated by our brains to create some sort of coherent meaning and understanding of the world 31 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:11,840 we're in. I mean, all of that comes into play in helping develop our perception 32 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:19,200 of how we see the world. So right off the bat, we can simply say no two people are going to 33 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:26,800 experience the same exact set of a set of senses, so to speak. So that should tell you that no two 34 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:31,120 people have the same perception, exact same perception, I should say, I mean, there is overlap. 35 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:36,560 There are people that have similar perceptions, but nothing no two people are exactly alike and 36 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:43,680 they're how they perceive things. But but I do want to stress that perception is not just passively 37 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:49,200 receiving that data, that sensory input into the brain, you know, it involves actively constructing 38 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:55,040 a personal reality influenced by just your individual experiences, your expectations, 39 00:03:55,040 --> 00:04:00,400 you have certain expectations based on experiences, and any prior knowledge that you have. 40 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:05,760 All that comes into play in shaping your perception of the world around you. 41 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:12,960 You see, I think if we all understood this part, we probably get along a lot better than we do now. 42 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:18,400 If we respect to each other's, I guess, viewpoints. But that might be a topic for a whole 43 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:25,600 another podcast. And so as the brain absorbs, I should say for a lack of better terms absorbs 44 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:30,640 all of this stimuli from the environment around us, through our sensory organs, it basically 45 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:36,080 does this interpretation and organizes the information and, you know, different sensory 46 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:41,360 sources and develop maybe like a coherent whole using processes like pattern recognition and 47 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:48,240 contextual inferences, drawing inferences on the information. And some would call those 48 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:56,240 probably heuristic shortcuts and judgments. And in our memories, our memories play a big part 49 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:03,200 in shaping our perception by basically taking what we've remembered what we recall making predictions 50 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:07,840 and interpreting this sensory data as we're gathering this information, making predictions, 51 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:13,280 as I just said a second ago, you know, he heuristic shortcuts to how we make judgments, 52 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:17,280 how we make decisions. And so all of this is happening inside your mind. And you're not even 53 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:21,440 aware of this year. And you're thinking you think this way because this is the right way. 54 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:27,360 But it's not necessarily the right way. It's the right way for you, perhaps, but it's not the 55 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:32,800 right way for the other 8 billion people on this planet. I think if we understood that, 56 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,720 we would even get along a little better, right? And then there's selective attention, 57 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:42,720 selective attention. selective attention has a big impact on what we perceive. It's basically what 58 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:50,560 we're choosing to pay attention to, which leads us into the subjectivity and perception. There's 59 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:56,880 a concept known as perceptual set. Basically, it's a mental predisposition to perceive one thing 60 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:01,680 and not another basically highlighting the subjectivity and perception. So what the heck does 61 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:09,040 that mean? You probably thinking, let me explain. So basically perceptual set is a psychological 62 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:16,560 concept referring to how we perceive information in a certain way based on our preconceived 63 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:23,440 attitudes, experiences, expectations and emotions of that event. And it's this predisposition that 64 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:31,040 we have that significantly influences how we interpret and respond to their to our sensory 65 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:37,360 input. And it's this concept here, this the concept of perceptual set that helps explain 66 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:44,960 why different people can perceive the same stimulus in very diverse ways. I mean, you can be in the 67 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:52,320 same room as someone else, have someone come in, create a commotion and leave and you're going to 68 00:06:52,320 --> 00:07:01,040 have two different perceptions of that event. And it's all going to be based on your past experiences, 69 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:08,560 your attitudes, your own emotional state and everything else that goes along with who you are. 70 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:14,160 I'll give you an example because one of the key aspects of perceptual set is expectations. So 71 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:20,080 let's say imagine you are going in for a medical treatment, okay? And you have an expectation 72 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:25,600 that the medical treatment is going to be effective. So you may perceive an improvement 73 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:33,200 in your symptoms, regardless of the treatment's actual efficacy or effectiveness, because you 74 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:38,640 have that preconceived idea that the treatment's going to be effective. And this is along the 75 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:44,000 lines of how placebos work as well in medicine, where you're given a placebo and told us to 76 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:49,280 real thing and you have an expectation of a certain outcome, like a good feeling, you know, 77 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:54,560 a feeling better and then that occurs because it's in the mind. Another key aspect of perceptual set 78 00:07:54,560 --> 00:08:02,640 is context. So the context in which a stimulus occurs also guides our expectations, in other 79 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:07,600 words, our perception. So let me give you an example here. Let's say a word you might read 80 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:13,760 differently in a sentence, depending on the surrounding words that provide context. So if 81 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:19,920 you're looking at a word, you may read it differently, even though it's not the word based on the 82 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:27,760 information, the other words around that context. And experience also is a key aspect of perceptual 83 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:34,480 set, because basically past experiences shape our perceptual set by conditioning us to, you know, 84 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:40,240 expect certain results. As an example, if someone has frequently encountered, well, let's say friendly 85 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:46,800 dogs, as opposed to vicious dogs, they've encountered friendly dogs, you know, they may 86 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:52,480 perceive a strange dog as friendly. How many people do you know that may go up to just a strange dog? 87 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:57,440 Their perception of a dog is probably like, Hey, I've had friendly dogs as dogs friendly, 88 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:02,800 I'm good with dogs. And they can do that even if the dog shows signs of aggression. I'm going to 89 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:07,360 give you a perfectly good example. In my house, I have a German shepherd. He is very nice and 90 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:12,080 loving wants me to pet him all over. But the moment a stranger comes in, he's vicious. He's a guard 91 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:19,040 dog. He's very protective. And we had a get together at my home one night. And one of the guests 92 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:23,920 felt that she was really good with dogs. She would say, Oh, dogs love me. Well, it was probably her 93 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:28,720 perception because she probably had good dogs and good experiences. Well, the moment she approached 94 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:35,440 my dog and tried to feed it a snack, it bit her hand very aggressively. 95 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:42,000 She learned real quick that not all dogs are friendly. So she was shaped by her past experiences 96 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,480 that all dogs are probably friendly. When she found out my dog wasn't, she probably realized, 97 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:50,560 Well, maybe that's going to reshape my thinking on future dogs. I'm going to go ahead and hold back. 98 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:54,160 And it's not think that every dog is going to be friendly towards me. And this applies walking 99 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:59,600 down in a in a city, a dark city at nighttime. I mean, I remember being in Milan, Italy, 100 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:04,720 a little paranoid because I'm walking through the streets at night and then I look around and I realize 101 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:10,000 there's women walking here by themselves. And they don't seem to be bothered by this here by by the 102 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:14,640 streets at night, midnight, one o'clock in the morning. And I realized it was pretty safe. I come 103 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:21,200 from, I don't live in LA. I live close to Los Angeles, California. And let me tell you, you 104 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:25,760 don't want to be walking, you don't be walking during the day in Los Angeles, California, let 105 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:32,080 alone at night. So my perception was shaped by that reality. I even went to university in 106 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:38,400 downtown LA USC. So my my perception is shaped by that reality of living down there and seeing the 107 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:43,680 crime. So every big city that I went to that I traveled to in Europe, or even in the United States, 108 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:49,600 I just assumed was very dangerous. Whereas other people that come from Europe, for example, 109 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:55,280 will come into Los Angeles thinking it's safer when it's really not another key aspect of a 110 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,600 perceptual set. And the reason I'm spending quite a bit of time here on the concept of 111 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:07,840 perceptual, perceptual set is that it's very important in shaping our perceptions as individuals. 112 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:14,240 And this all of that information in a perceptual set basically comes down to how we perceive 113 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:18,960 differently from one another, how we experience life differently. And that leads to a different 114 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:23,760 set of perceptions. So as I said, another key aspect is mood in your emotions. So I mean, it's 115 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:29,280 it's probably a no brainer, but somebody who's feeling sad will have a different perception 116 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:33,760 of a situation versus someone who's feeling ecstatic or happy, they're going to perceive 117 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:39,600 that same situation completely different. And a big one that a lot of us just don't really understand. 118 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:47,600 But it's culture, culture, your cultural background can influence your perceptual sets by 119 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:53,120 ingraining certain values, folks, you know, your beliefs and typical patterns of thoughts that 120 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:58,080 affect how information is processed, how you society comes together. Look, it's a reality, 121 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:04,960 you can be a Christian in an Islamic country, but you're going to be influenced by Islamic 122 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:11,200 cultures, because it's a predominant religion in the Middle East, for example. So you're going to 123 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:17,280 retain a lot of those cultural values, which are conservative, and that's going to spill over into 124 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:23,040 your life. Even if you come to America, I've known people that grew up Islamic in the Middle East, 125 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:27,360 they're conservative, they come to the United States, they're Christian, they're not even Islamic 126 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:34,960 there. But they still retain that ultra conservative Islamic mentality, because it's ingrained in their 127 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:40,240 culture and that drives their perception of how the West is. And it takes them a while to 128 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:44,880 acclimate to a whole different culture, whole different society. And some just don't do that, 129 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:50,400 they just retain what they have and try to adapt or change the rest of society. And that's what 130 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:55,440 we have today in our country. And once we have today around the world, people always trying to 131 00:12:55,440 --> 00:13:03,440 change an influence. And something as simple as color perception varies between cultures and how 132 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:11,600 they categorize color. Not all colors transcend all cultures. And not everybody agrees that blue 133 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:18,640 is blue. So I mean, there's even a big discrepancy in discussion or argument or disagreement on colors, 134 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:25,840 folks, and how we perceive that from culture to culture. And all of this comes into play in how 135 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:30,640 you think and how you perceive the world and how you interact with everyone else. I think if you 136 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:39,280 can completely truly understand that, I'm not advocating change who you are. What I'm saying is, 137 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:45,680 have a complete awareness that what you're perceiving is not necessarily the same thing as 138 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:52,160 the next person observing the same event as you are is perceiving, because they have a whole 139 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:58,640 different perceptual set of reality of what's going on based on their own history, their own 140 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:05,280 emotions. And I think if we can understand that with people, we can get along a lot better. 141 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:11,600 You know, we can agree to disagree, respect other people's opinions, but not necessarily have to 142 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:16,720 agree to the opinion. I know it's a utopian dream, but hey, you know, we got to start somewhere, 143 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:20,000 right? And then there's a whole science, I mean, we're not going to get into the whole 144 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:27,520 neurological aspects of perception, because this is not a podcast on neurology specifically, 145 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:32,880 but you know, parts of the brand like the Ciprolobe, you know, for your vision, 146 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:38,560 temporal lobes for hearing all these come into play because of your senses. So the key takeaway 147 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:44,320 here is that your senses are highly involved in shaping your perception of reality of the world 148 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:49,040 around you. Before I move on into the philosophical context of perception, I want to give you some 149 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:55,680 real life implications of perception, kind of give you some examples. So you can kind of pull all of 150 00:14:55,680 --> 00:15:01,280 this together in this segment here, this first segment on, you know, the reality or the, on these 151 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:06,880 psychological aspects, on the psychological aspects of perception. One of the most prominent real life 152 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:11,120 implications that we have right now is politics, folks, politics. I don't care what country you're 153 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:19,840 from. I don't care if you're in the European Union, if you are in Africa, if you are in an Asian 154 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:25,120 country or the United States of America or some South American country that I, that I catch them 155 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:32,640 all. I hope I did. I don't think Antarctica has a government. But people will perceive a speech by 156 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:40,400 a politician differently. You can have 12 different people listening to a speech by a politician and 157 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,760 all 12 are going to walk away with some sort of different perception. Now there's going to be 158 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:48,800 overlapping ideologies, overlapping perception from one person to the next, because they're all 159 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:53,920 like-minded if they're listening to the politician. However, they're still going to walk away. Some 160 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:59,200 may be very extreme. Others will walk away thinking, okay, well, maybe some of it's true, maybe not all 161 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:05,440 of it's true, but I still support my guy type of thing. So that's one area where perception 162 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:13,600 is critical. What about decision making? Are perceptions influenced? Are decision making? 163 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:18,720 I'm going to give you another example. This happened probably 10, 20 years ago. I don't 164 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:25,600 remember the exact date, early 2000s. And it was an airline coming into San Francisco. And it was 165 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:29,360 short of approach. And I forget it was one of these Asian airlines. It could have been Japan 166 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:33,200 Airlines. I don't want to really name it out, because I'm not really certain of what airline 167 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:38,880 it was. But I know it was Asian. It could have been Korean Airlines. But in any event, what happened 168 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:47,520 was the plane landed short of the runway crashing. And I think a person fell out and died. I mean, 169 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:53,840 not everybody on that plane died, but it was a was considered an airplane crash. And what happened 170 00:16:53,840 --> 00:17:00,560 was the pilot was a seasoned pilot, but new to that aircraft. And the co pilot had more experience 171 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:07,280 in that aircraft. But yet didn't call out the pilot on what he was doing wrong. Now there's 172 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,600 a leadership bias there where you assume that the leader or the person in charge knows what they're 173 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:18,320 doing. However, it's also a cultural difference to in that the subordinate pilot didn't want to 174 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:25,280 question the senior pilot. And that was a cultural, a cultural communication gap in that 175 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:31,120 situation, the perception that this guy is senior, therefore I can't question him or I should not. 176 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:36,240 It would be disrespectful led to this crash. Because the co pilot knew that what was happening 177 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:41,600 was incorrect, but he assumed that the pilot would make a correction or fix it or knew what he was 178 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:47,680 doing. And then you crash a $100 million plane and kill a person or two. It's, you know, it's not a 179 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:53,520 good thing. So the perception played an important role in decision making. And that goes along, 180 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:58,400 even down to the lowest level within the household folks with parents with bosses at work, 181 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:04,480 your perceptions impact your decision making. I've had bosses that I wondered, where did you 182 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:08,640 crawl out from under? I mean, your perceptions way off. But I can't really say that in all 183 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:13,200 fairness, because my perceptions different with my upbringing in my in my history. I mean, and you 184 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:18,480 have again, there's a whole list of stuff workplace dynamics health and wellness, you know, interpersonal 185 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:23,280 relationships, education and learning, all of these shape your perception. And they all of them 186 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:29,120 have an impact on those areas of your life. And being more cognizant of that being more aware of 187 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:37,200 that can help you become a better thinker, better decision maker, and just better well rounded 188 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:41,920 leader, so to speak. And I'm not talking leadership as in the sense of becoming a leader of a country. 189 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:47,680 I'm talking the leader of your own sanity, your mentality of who you are as a person. 190 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:53,520 And one more before we go, because I think it's important, the legal and judicial system folks. 191 00:18:53,520 --> 00:19:01,600 I mean, we talked about this in on the podcast about do we have free will and or is life deterministic, 192 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:07,040 in that if life is deterministic, and there is no free will, then our whole judicial system needs 193 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:12,080 to be revamped, because the person's not really committing the crime, it's already predetermined 194 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:17,280 in their neuroscience, their brain, that they're going to do something, you know, based on genetics 195 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:24,640 or whatever. So perception plays a big role, especially in eyewitness testimony. Can you 196 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:32,320 imagine how many innocent people are imprisoned over just eyewitness testimony, and how that 197 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:39,120 person that was the key eyewitness was biased in some way? I mean, it's it's a reality, folks. 198 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:43,600 It happens. And it has happened. And people have been vindicated. 199 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:50,160 Some 1020 years after the fact, that's pretty amazing. Just on a person's perception. And 200 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:57,200 remember, perception is reality. And there is no objective perception, objective reality in terms 201 00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:04,000 of human perception. It's all subjective. That's that's pretty amazing when it comes down to it. 202 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,280 Now, you're going to get people who are going to say, well, you know, religion, Christianity, 203 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:12,080 God says this, look at again, that's your perception. Okay, that is your perception. 204 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:16,640 And you're entitled to that. Hallelujah. That's for you. I'm going to support you on whatever 205 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:22,880 you believe in. Because I believe that everyone has a right to their own set of beliefs. But don't 206 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:27,520 push it on to other people assuming that's a truth. It's your truth, it may not be their truth. 207 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:32,160 Because again, their perception is different than yours based on what we just talked about. 208 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:37,600 All of these other sensory factors. Okay, let's talk about the philosophical context of perception, 209 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:42,960 because we know our good buddies, the philosophers have a lot to say about reality and perception. 210 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:48,160 So we've touched on the neurological and psychological, well, mainly on the psychological, 211 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,840 we didn't get really too deep into the neurological part of it, what happens inside the brain. 212 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,280 We'll leave that if you want to go to med school and become a neuroscientist. 213 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,560 But we understand that psychologically and neurologically that our senses play a 214 00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:05,440 big role in creating our perception. Now philosophers, philosophers 215 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:11,280 have historically considered perception more than just a biological or psychological process. 216 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:18,160 They consider it a fundamental aspect of human experience. It's fundamentally who we are, 217 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:23,840 which is not wrong to say because I mean, it's a truth, right? Having perception is basically 218 00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:28,720 being human. So I don't think that was very, I don't think that's so thought provoking. 219 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:34,880 And it's been a longstanding view that philosophers view perception as basically a bridge that bridges 220 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:41,680 between the external world, what we see in front of us, and our internal cognition, well, 221 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:47,600 cognition would be internally anyways, but our own thoughts, it's a bridge between the real world. 222 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:53,360 And I say real world with quote, quotations, because what's real to you is not real to someone 223 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:58,000 else per se. And again, it goes back to perception. But what philosophers have long 224 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:04,320 stated is that perception is that bridge between the external world and our own thought process, 225 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:09,040 our own cognition. And it's basically this perception they suggest is a primary way we 226 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:15,280 access and interpret the world around us, which is very true. Because that's what we're constantly 227 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:20,400 doing. We're taking in senses, we're processing it based on our biases, our history, our knowledge, 228 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:25,040 our cultural input, and then we're spitting out some sort of a result answer to what we're seeing. 229 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:32,240 And we call that reality. And a lot of philosophical doctrines, basically, don't just say perception 230 00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:38,800 just affects our understanding of reality, but that it actively shapes that reality through our 231 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:45,680 experiences. You see what we're doing here, folks, we're going from who we are, our history, our 232 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:53,040 background, all of our biases, culture, education, emotions, translating that into a perception 233 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:59,600 on how we see the world into our reality, what we think the world is. And remember, I said, 234 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:04,400 no people, no two people's realities are the same. There could be overlaps, but they're not exactly 235 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:10,000 the same. And then there's the concept of empiricism, the philosophy, the philosophical theory of 236 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:16,400 empiricism that suggests that all knowledge comes from sensory experiences. I mean, there's philosophers 237 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:21,360 like John Locke, we've talked about on other podcasts, who believe that our perceptions help 238 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:28,000 form our understanding of the world around us. And that's not wrong at all. I mean, it's just a 239 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:31,840 philosophical explanation of what it is. But really, when it comes down to it, it's a science 240 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:37,200 explanation as well, because all those senses, and we've talked about come into play when it's 241 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,120 creating that perception of us. And another philosopher I've talked about in the past is 242 00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:47,920 Emmanuel Kant, who's the father of Kantian philosophy. Basically, his ideas that while 243 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:52,960 our perceptions are of the world, you know, the world in which we live in, they're shaped by the 244 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:59,440 innate structures of our mind. Thus, we can never, ever know the world as it is independently 245 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:06,800 of how we see it. I mean, you can't go out and say, I know this, when in reality, you don't know it, 246 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:12,480 you just perceive it based on all your senses, right? So what would be a truth? What would be a 247 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:16,640 fact? I don't know, we have to come to some agreement, right? But how does all of this 248 00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:23,360 ancient philosophical theory or ideas play into today's relevancy? Well, it plays a lot because 249 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:31,440 look at folks, we have things such as ethics, art, science. All of that is influenced by our 250 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:38,480 perceptions. And our perceptions are influenced by our own ideologies, our own behaviors, our own 251 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:45,440 emotions, or past cultural experiences. So it makes it sometimes challenging to get along 252 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:53,040 or to understand completely. That's why there is really no objective reality when it comes to 253 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:59,360 human perception. So to say that human reality is a fact, I would say that it's not a fact because 254 00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:05,760 there is no such thing as a greed upon reality with over 8 billion different realities on this 255 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:11,760 planet. That's fascinating to me. And I think it takes a very cerebral person to truly understand 256 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:17,120 that idea. It doesn't mean that you have to agree and accept everyone's ideology because I certainly 257 00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:23,600 don't. But I do understand it and I understand it's their reality and they own that and they're 258 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:31,840 entitled to that. It's not wrong. It's not right. It's just who they are. And given that, I'm okay 259 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:37,280 with it. But when it comes to society, it's really difficult to try to manage hundreds of millions 260 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:43,200 of people in one country under one ideology. And that's where you have all this turmoil because 261 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:50,640 some people see it a different way while others see it another way. And then there's this conflict. 262 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:56,160 So can we really have 8 billion different little countries? I mean, wouldn't it be great if we can 263 00:25:56,160 --> 00:26:01,040 simply say your home is your country, it's a sovereign nation, you know, and your laws will 264 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:06,000 apply only to you on that piece of property. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue after that? 265 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000 My God, I don't know. I don't even know how that would, how would that would even play out. 266 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:15,760 But the reality is, folks, is that there is no objective reality when it comes to human perception. 267 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:22,800 And I think I've said that many times already. So we have to find a way to coexist with our own 268 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:29,840 realities, you know, kind of work work together somehow in that coming up. I'm going to explain 269 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:36,240 some get a little deeper into the factors influencing our perceptions when we come back. 270 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:41,200 We're going to recap a little bit on what we talked about earlier on the factors that influence 271 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:46,960 our perception. I mean, we can broadly categorize these these factors into cultural, emotional, 272 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:51,360 and psychological, as well as environmental influences. I mean, because that's a big thing 273 00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:57,440 nowadays as well, the environment, right? Our surroundings, these all play a role in 274 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:02,240 generating or creating our perceptions for us. So first off, we talked about, we briefly talked 275 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:08,320 about color or cultural perception and color perception in different cultures. And really, 276 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:14,960 some cultures have more ways of explaining the color blue than English speakers do, which basically 277 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:21,840 leads to different perceptions of color. I mean, what does red signify in in China signifies luck, 278 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:29,120 for the most part? But what does red signify in the West danger, you know, and these colors 279 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:34,720 impact our perception or reality? It's when if you ever if you've ever known a designer, 280 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:42,640 graphic designer or a marketer, someone who who deals with with advertising internationally, 281 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:48,160 they have to be extremely cautious in how they word the type of visuals they use and the colors 282 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:53,680 they use, because they don't want to create a negative perception of their brand based on 283 00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:59,520 that culture or a culture in which their product is in that market. They don't want to create a 284 00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:04,640 negative brand or negative image of that brand. So they have to be very careful in creating the 285 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:11,120 visuals that help sell that brand without destroying, you know, the brand altogether, 286 00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:15,280 because of some color that they perceive as positive, whereas another culture might see 287 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:21,440 as negative and taste food. Have you tasted multitudes of foods? I mean, the food in Africa 288 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:27,200 versus the food in Europe versus the food in the West, which is junk food, which is, you know, food 289 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:33,120 in Asia and the Middle East, they all have these different tastes, you know, there's different 290 00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:40,480 levels of bitterness, different levels of sweetness, different levels of, you know, tartness. 291 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:49,360 And all these play a perception, a role in forming your perception, I should say, of reality, 292 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:54,480 and how you perceive the world around you. I mean, let's take, let's take, for example, 293 00:28:55,920 --> 00:29:00,800 bugs. About a third of the world eats bugs for protein, it's a sustainable protein. 294 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:05,680 And there's really nothing wrong with eating the bugs if you grew up eating the bugs. 295 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:10,160 You could eat cockroaches or a whole host of other insects. But here in the West, 296 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,560 if you brought that up, people like, ooh, it's like the ick factor, even though it's not going to 297 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:20,880 hurt you if you've prepared it properly, like you would prepare any other protein and eat it. 298 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:26,000 But yet the fact that we are disgusted by the looks of insects, we don't want to eat it. And we 299 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:32,080 look at other countries as odd, other people as odd or primitive, when that's not even true. 300 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:39,120 That in itself is kind of odd to look at other countries as odd for eating something that they 301 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:44,720 find very nutritional and very sustaining, sustainable. And another cultural perception 302 00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:49,120 would be moral judgment, how we judge one another. If we take a look at the Middle East, if we take 303 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:55,920 a look at the predominantly Islamic countries, they don't believe 100% in women's rights. 304 00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:02,080 I'm not saying they don't have, they don't believe that women has some rights, but wholeheartedly, 305 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:10,160 especially in extremism in Afghanistan, where you have the extreme Taliban, 306 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:16,480 they don't believe women should be educated. Whereas here in this country, we advocate for 307 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:22,400 education. And yet that impacts the perception of people from that part of the world. When in fact, 308 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:28,320 Islam was a very, or the Middle East, I should say, not Islam so much, but the Middle East 309 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:35,440 was a prospering educational hub before Islam came along and changed the perception of people in that 310 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:41,280 region. I mean, the first university ran by a woman was in the Middle East, was in Northern Africa. 311 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:46,960 I forget the name of the university right now, but it was created by a woman and it was in the 312 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:53,520 Middle East and this predates Islam. So perceptions change within cultures as well over time. And 313 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:58,480 that changes other people's perception of that culture. It's like you're damned if you do and if 314 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:04,640 you're damned if you don't. Other factors, as we've discussed, are emotional and psychological 315 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:10,720 factors. I mean, your emotional state is probably one of the biggest factors of your perceptions. 316 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:17,040 Let's say, for example, you had somebody, a loved one in the military and went to war and was killed 317 00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:22,000 by the opposing culture. That would change a lot of people's perception of that culture, 318 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:28,560 even though it's not really justified intellectually, but emotionally, it would have an impact on you 319 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:35,520 and how you perceive that other culture. You would probably hate them or dislike them or have this 320 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:42,320 animosity towards them. And that happens a lot, even optimism or pessimism. I remember 321 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:48,000 when I was in a country called Kyrgyzstan, it was a former Soviet country, and I walked around the 322 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:55,920 streets there with a bodyguard and an interpreter. And I noticed that everyone had a very, you know, 323 00:31:55,920 --> 00:32:01,680 bleak look on their face. They didn't, they looked like they were not happy. And my question 324 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:07,360 to the interpreter was, why does everyone look unhappy walking around the street? And basically, 325 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:13,200 his explanation was, if you didn't have money, or you didn't have a good society, 326 00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:17,920 you know, or couldn't feed your family, you wouldn't look happy either. They think that Americans are 327 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:24,640 crazy because they smile a lot. I kind of agree. I mean, I smile too, but, but I get the point now. 328 00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:30,000 You see, I just needed someone to explain that to me, that perception to me, but our disposition 329 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:37,280 in life, how we see our reality in our own countries, shape our perceptions of other societies. 330 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,800 Does it make it wrong? I don't think it makes it wrong. It just makes it right for that person. 331 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:45,520 But I think they need to understand that not everybody's going to be the same. It's hard to 332 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:49,840 do that. I'm telling you, it's not that easy. Changing your behavior, changing your perception 333 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:56,080 is not a snap your finger type of thing. It takes time and effort, if that's what you want to 334 00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:00,880 achieve. But back to optimism and pessimism, let's say you're an optimist and you move to a 335 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:07,600 rainy part of the country, you might look at rain as an inconvenience, just a slight inconvenience, 336 00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:14,080 nothing out of the ordinary. I personally love rain, but to some people who are optimistic, 337 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:19,600 we'll go, okay, what's an inconvenience? But I'll deal with it. It's part of nature. Whereas a pessimist 338 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:24,080 would have a hard time with that, constantly complaining about the weather. Think about how 339 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:30,240 that would impact their relationships. So if you moved from your country or from your city 340 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:36,720 to a different part of the country or different country altogether, and the weather was going 341 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:42,160 to be completely different, and you viewed it as a pessimist, your whole perception would be 342 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:49,040 completely different versus being an optimist. And then you have environmental impact. People who 343 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:54,240 live in the city and love to live in the city, the hustle and bustle, the fast pace, will look at 344 00:33:54,240 --> 00:34:01,040 people in the urban areas as slow, maybe sometimes lazy or backwards, so to speak. I mean, definitely 345 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:05,280 there's that stigma if you look at people that are on the West Coast here in the United States, 346 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:11,120 and they're looking at people in the Midwest as slow, lazy, maybe not educated. And that's not 347 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,720 even the case. But that's the perception they have because they're living on a farm, but they're 348 00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:20,960 living in some rural area. They're not in the fast paced fake world of Los Angeles and Hollywood, 349 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:26,080 which to me, I don't like period, but but in any event, it shapes your perception, your environment 350 00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:32,720 shapes your perception, whether you live in the city, or you live in the suburbs, or you live in 351 00:34:32,720 --> 00:34:38,640 the sticks, the woods by yourself, you know, far from anybody else, you probably don't want anyone 352 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:46,160 near you at that point. So in the end here, cultural, emotional, psychological and environmental 353 00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:53,280 factors have such a profound impact on your perception that helps shape your reality. I mean, 354 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:57,360 and no two people are going to experience the same. Again, as I said, they're going to have 355 00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:01,760 overlap, but they're not going to experience it, experience it exactly the same. If you're from 356 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:07,840 the city, and you're a miserable person, and you go to visit somebody in the country, who seems to be 357 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:13,680 very optimistic, you're going to look at them as maybe crazy, you know, why is this person happy and, 358 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:19,440 you know, just content with his life out here, and it's so slow. Whereas the person that grew up 359 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:26,160 in the city and is shaped by that environmental impact and other societal and cultural factors 360 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,240 may end up in the city going like, wow, this is not for me. It's too fast. It's dangerous. It's 361 00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:35,200 loud. It's noisy. I can't live with this. I mean, that's reality right there. And it's these, 362 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:41,360 and it's these perceptions that impact real world interactions and decisions that we make for one 363 00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:45,600 another and with one another, especially if you take somebody out of the rural area, bring them 364 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:49,680 into the city for work. There's a big impact. I mean, there could be a positive side to it as 365 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:55,200 well, because it's a different point of view. But is that necessarily good? Have you ever heard 366 00:35:55,200 --> 00:36:00,960 that saying perception is reality? You've probably heard it. If not, I'm telling you, 367 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:07,760 perception is reality because perception, or should I say, because reality is not a fixed 368 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:15,920 external landscape, but it's a personal construct shaped significantly by our perceptions. So, 369 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:21,440 so when someone says to you in an argument, that's not real, or that's not reality, 370 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:25,280 you can simply come back and say, well, it's my reality, because it's my perception. 371 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:31,120 And that's true. It is. It is your reality and you own it. You're entitled to it. Don't let 372 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:34,560 no one take that away from you. If you want to believe there's little green men flying around 373 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:38,640 in spaceships, then go ahead and believe that because that's your reality. And if you have proof 374 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:43,440 to yourself, then hallelujah, that's proof to yourself. Don't let no one take that away from you. 375 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,560 I mean, I celebrate the individuality of humanity and everybody's different. 376 00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:53,200 I support that I support the individuality of everybody. I mean, there are some that are 377 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:57,840 far extreme to what I like, I don't care for, but I'm indifferent to it. I don't go around 378 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,680 condemning them. I say they're not right. They're not wrong. They're just right for who they are. 379 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:08,000 That's what they want. And that's fine. I mean, just don't try to control me. Now I think and what 380 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:13,920 I should do and not do other than that, we can coexist all day and all lifelong. But reality 381 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:19,040 basically is a construct through our sensory experiences and our cognitive processes, right? 382 00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,920 I mean, meaning that our reality is subjective and it varies from person to person. This is 383 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:28,480 the theme I've been talking about. Everybody's different. It's not, I'm not going to change that 384 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:33,040 theme because it's true. And then you're probably thinking, well, that's your reality. I think 385 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:40,080 everyone has the same. See how this argument can go and go back and forth. It can get complicated, 386 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:44,720 too. And then a fight can break out. And if we're two countries, a war can break out 387 00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:50,080 all over ideology, right? All over just how we perceive things. And none of it's really true. 388 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:55,200 That's just how we think it's true. But imagine for a moment how the idea, just the concept of our 389 00:37:55,200 --> 00:38:01,680 own perception is reality. And just think for a moment how subjectivity challenges the concept 390 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:06,880 of a single objective truth. Seriously, I mean, have you ever sat down and thought about this? 391 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:12,880 How different perceptions lead to different understandings of what is true or real in 392 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:17,920 various situations, folks? It's a problem we have in politics, right? It's a problem we have in 393 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:24,240 government. It's a problem we have in education at work with family members. Just because you're 394 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:29,280 a family member doesn't mean you're all going to think alike. There's such great diversity 395 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:38,400 in genetics alone. And this whole perception of what is true or what is real in various situations, 396 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:45,040 there's a term called the Rashomon effect, which basically differentiates witnesses to the same 397 00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:51,200 event. They have like witnesses have very distinct conflicting recollections of a 398 00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:55,840 subjective nature in reality. They don't see the same thing. I mean, that's a problem, especially 399 00:38:55,840 --> 00:39:01,840 in crime. I mean, key features of the Rashomon effect are subjectivity for number one, how our 400 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:07,520 personal experiences, motives and emotions, and as I keep bringing up your cultural backgrounds, 401 00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:13,280 can shape your individual interpretations and recounting of the same events very differently. 402 00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:18,320 Explains why not two people see the same thing always, when the same thing is being right in 403 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:23,040 front of them. It also counts for why there might be deadlocks and juries. Sometimes when 404 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:28,960 you've got nine people or 10 or 11 people saying one thing and one person doesn't see it that way. 405 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:36,080 The effect also indicates that multiple observe observers of an event may offer contradictory 406 00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:43,120 and equally plausible accounts based on their perspectives, you can have contradictory perceptions 407 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:49,680 of the same event. He didn't, he did, he didn't, he did. That would drive you crazy. 408 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:56,960 And then there's the influence of self-serving bias within the Rashomon effect whereby these 409 00:39:56,960 --> 00:40:01,600 differing accounts, alright, witness accounts are influenced by desire to present themselves, 410 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:09,280 these people themselves in a positive light or just to justify their actions. So basically, 411 00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:15,920 the Rashomon effect questions the relativity of truth itself, suggesting that our understanding 412 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:22,960 of reality can often be deeply personal and can often vary influenced by subjective perceptions. 413 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:28,240 And again, this has an impact in legal areas when you have witnesses, multiple witnesses saying 414 00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:34,720 different things. One side says, I saw him do it. The other person says, I didn't see him do it. 415 00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:39,760 I saw someone like him do it. And then the other person says, no, it was him. And it goes back 416 00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:46,640 and forth. And who's right? And sometimes the innocent guy gets convicted and the guilty guy 417 00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:52,960 goes free. Go figure, right? Now getting back to perception and reality, I kind of went off on a 418 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:59,520 tangent there with the Rashomon effect. But I wanted to drive home that it's a it's a serious 419 00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:05,760 problem when it comes to eyewitness testimony and to people's perception of an event that is critical, 420 00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:10,800 that can have an impact on someone else's life. And think about your own personal relationships. 421 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:17,680 There's, there's misunderstandings. There's conflicts as a result of your different perceptions. 422 00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:22,480 I've experienced the same thing in my own marriage, you know, or the opposite can happen. You can 423 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:28,880 even have deeper connections and acknowledge and and be understood. So it can go both ways, 424 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:34,800 depending on your perceptions and how shared how much of a shared perception you have. And again, 425 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:41,440 this expands not just to two people, but to a broader spectrum like society, these differences 426 00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:48,800 and perceptions. And that's why I find it important to recognize and respect diverse perceptions, 427 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:54,880 because everyone is different in how they view reality, their perceptions are based upon their 428 00:41:55,760 --> 00:42:03,280 own, you know, behavioral, emotional, psychological patterns. So can we punish people for how they 429 00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:10,080 think and believe and find ourselves innocent? You know, we're as guilty if we're going to 430 00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:15,280 condemn someone, right? If we're condemning the other guy for the way he sees and thinks about life, 431 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:19,120 we should condemn ourselves because we're no different if we flip the script, 432 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:21,760 and it's coming from that other person's perception and they're looking at us. 433 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:27,680 So we need to learn to respect this diversity. You know, again, we don't have to agree with it. 434 00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:32,560 There's a lot I don't agree with, but I accept it. You know, it's just part of life. Just move on, 435 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:37,680 you know, here's a good exercise for you over the next few days, week, month, year, lifetime, 436 00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:42,960 if you want to do it that way, you know, take a look at your own personal perceptions and how it 437 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:48,560 shaped your reality. What are some things that you see in others that you don't like that the 438 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:54,080 other person's doing? And stop and think about that for a moment. And I'll try to understand that 439 00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:59,040 other person, maybe that other person, well, it's not maybe that other person has a different set 440 00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:04,720 of realities, it has a different reality has a different set of perceptions. Try to understand 441 00:43:04,720 --> 00:43:11,440 them, get to know them. Abraham Lincoln, former US president, I think it was a 16th president, 442 00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:16,800 said in a quote, or at least a quote attributed to him, I do not like that man, therefore, 443 00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:22,560 I must get to know him better. And that would be my advice to everybody with different perceptions 444 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:27,840 and realities from your own. You may not like them, but get to know them a little better. 445 00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:32,720 I've done that. And it's turned out I've really like people who have opposite thinkers than me, 446 00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:38,160 but they're really good people at heart. They're good souls, you know, if we take some time to 447 00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:46,160 understand our own perceptions, and see how that impacts our reality and affects our relationships 448 00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:54,000 and our perceptions of others, we can learn to navigate our personal, professional, and social 449 00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:00,800 realms more effectively. You see, there's a benefit to challenge and expand our own perceptions. 450 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:04,880 It can lead to deeper understanding and appreciation for the complexity of the world around us. 451 00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:10,400 It does, it really does. You know, they say traveling to different countries opens up your 452 00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:15,920 mind and understanding of different cultures and societies, and you become more tolerant. 453 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:20,000 And that's true. I've done plenty of traveling around this globe. And if you think the earth 454 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:28,720 is flat, then I've done traveling along the linear part of the flat planet. But then that would be 455 00:44:28,720 --> 00:44:31,920 your reality and you're entitled to that even though there's no science to prove that. But 456 00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:39,600 you know, I'll let you have it. But my point is, in every country, whether it have been Belgium, 457 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:45,600 which I found the people very, very pleasant, and very nice, France, Germany, 458 00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:54,800 Germany, okay, the Middle East, Italy, you know, Central Asia, Australia, it doesn't matter. 459 00:44:55,920 --> 00:45:00,960 I've learned to understand these people just by interacting with them and getting to know them 460 00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:07,200 and trying to understand their perception of my world. It helps increase your empathy. 461 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:14,880 It enhances your creativity. It gives you better problem solving abilities and improves 462 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:20,400 your interpersonal relationships when you begin to understand other people's perceptions, when 463 00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:25,440 you broaden your perception, because at the end of the day, you get to go home and still be you. 464 00:45:26,720 --> 00:45:30,160 No one says you have to take everyone home with you and listen to them all the time, 465 00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:36,160 but at least understand them for your own betterment. If you don't want to do it for someone else, 466 00:45:36,720 --> 00:45:41,360 I would hope you want to do it for society, but if not do it for your own betterment. 467 00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:46,320 So how do we broaden our perceptions? Well, I'm going to go back to the same thing I say 468 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:53,440 almost every podcast, mindfulness, mindfulness, mindfulness, mindfulness, mindfulness meditation 469 00:45:53,440 --> 00:46:00,240 really does help you observe your immediate reactions and thoughts about people life. 470 00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:07,760 It helps you lead, it helps lead you to a deeper awareness of your perceptual biases when you 471 00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:12,560 meditate and are mindful about it. And so how do you do this? There's mindful listening, 472 00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:18,080 where you listen intently. It's like active listening. You're engaged with that person. 473 00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:25,520 Focused observation, where you sit and you watch and you observe and then ask questions. 474 00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:30,400 You'll be surprised. People would answer your questions if you asked them in a way that was 475 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:34,480 respectful. And another technique to broaden your perception is expose yourself to other 476 00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:42,480 cultures and ideas. As I said, travel does wonders for the soul. But if you can't afford to travel 477 00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:47,760 or you don't have the time, there's other ways around it. You can get knowledge through books, 478 00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:53,760 you know, through films, having conversations with people. This is no lie. Early when Skype, 479 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:59,520 I don't know if you're familiar with Skype, but I remember in the early 2000s, when Skype was 480 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:04,800 just getting underway, I think it was 2003 when it launched, I would literally start randomly 481 00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:10,240 dialing people over the internet using Skype and having conversations with them if they spoke English. 482 00:47:10,240 --> 00:47:17,120 I mean, some people would think I'm crazy for doing that, but I found it exhilarating because 483 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:23,200 I wanted to understand the world around me. I wanted to understand people from other cultures 484 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:30,560 and what they thought about America, the United States to be specific. So I would randomly call, 485 00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:36,560 I called Italy and I had already been to Italy prior, but I called Italy. I didn't speak Italian 486 00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:44,000 that well, but I talked to a few gentlemen in Italy. I spoke to a woman in Afghanistan 487 00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:48,960 who basically said that if her husband found out she was talking to me, he would kill her. 488 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:55,680 She had, she was working for the government at the time that the United States was in Afghanistan, 489 00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:59,280 but I found that interesting that she was willing to have a conversation with me while she was at 490 00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:05,360 work and I was just interested in her perceptions of everything and I would just do this randomly 491 00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:11,760 weekly, just get on Skype and start calling random people just to learn a little bit about 492 00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:17,040 where they are and what they're doing in the world. And I found that fascinating. So even that 493 00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:21,840 exposure can help you understand the world around you because if you understand other people's 494 00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:26,640 viewpoints, you begin to understand where they're coming from and you begin to understand their 495 00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:31,680 realities and their perception and you'll find that everybody's pretty much similar. They just want 496 00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:38,080 to get through the day, have peace and you know kind of live their life. And then again, there's 497 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:42,960 also workshops and educational courses that you can take to understand that. But I think the best 498 00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:47,200 way is to get out there and communicate with people, even if there's people in your own community 499 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:52,800 that are not from your country, but like live from, live in your country from other countries, 500 00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:57,200 connect with them. We have that all over the United States. I've seen that all over Europe too. 501 00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:02,480 People from different countries come in to France, to Italy, to Belgium, to Germany, 502 00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:10,560 to Finland, to the UK. It doesn't matter. Even artwork and the media play a big role in shaping 503 00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:17,520 your perception and shaping your reality. I mean music alone. I listen to music from all over the 504 00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:22,800 world. Every time I travel, I try to listen to the music that's local. And there's a lot of it 505 00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:29,280 that's great. People would think I'm weird, but I love it. I'm a very eclectic listener to different 506 00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:35,520 types of music because I've grown up that way. And I've embraced that and I accept that and I like 507 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:41,200 all kinds of different sounds and music. Media has a big influence on your perception too, not always 508 00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:46,240 for the better. I mean there's always, there's a lot of propaganda and media, but you can gain 509 00:49:46,240 --> 00:49:51,200 an insight into the thinking and what other people value in other societies by listening to their 510 00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:59,360 media channels. If you are fortunate enough to have media from other countries, you know, playing 511 00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:03,680 well nowadays you can stream stuff. So you don't even need to have it on cable. You can go to 512 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:10,880 YouTube, you know, and listen to news media from other countries, the US, the UK, you know, France, 513 00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:16,080 and have it subtitled and understand their perceptions. Even China, you know, get a kind of 514 00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:20,480 a feel for where their mindset is, what they're thinking, and what their perception of reality 515 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:27,280 is. That's an education in itself. The intake away on this here is that there is no excuse 516 00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:34,720 other than not wanting to, to learn about other people's perceptions because we have a whole world 517 00:50:34,720 --> 00:50:41,680 of tools at our disposal with the internet, you know, with video streaming, cable services, books, 518 00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:46,160 you name it, that little phone in your hand that you're listening to this podcast on 519 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:54,160 is a tool that's come a long way that is a little computer that you can do research on and learn 520 00:50:54,160 --> 00:51:00,080 from. So there's really no reason why you couldn't go out and understand other people's perceptions, 521 00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:05,760 because it's only going to help you become a better you. I think we've touched on quite a bit 522 00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:11,280 on perception and reality. And I think you understand by now the key takeaway is that 523 00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:19,280 perception is reality and everyone has their own reality, and that no two people will share the 524 00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:27,760 same set of perceptions exactly alike. And that everything that we touch see smell here has an 525 00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:33,760 impact on our perception, which impacts our reality, the world around us, and how we see it and how we 526 00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:42,240 act towards ourselves and towards one another. And I encourage you to reflect on your own perceptual 527 00:51:42,240 --> 00:51:48,800 biases and expanding your perception could affect your relationships and understand the world around 528 00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:55,280 you. As an exercise, I would just do that weekly, pick a different country, pick a different society, 529 00:51:55,280 --> 00:52:01,840 pick a different topic to understand, engage in new cultures, you know, try different arts, 530 00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:08,960 artistic experiences, practice mindfulness as ways to challenge and broaden your perception. 531 00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:16,960 I promise you, if you approach this with an open mind, you will begin to see a change in who you 532 00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:23,360 are and how you think about the world. Again, it's not compromising you. It's just helping you, 533 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:29,280 it's just helping opening your mind to a world that you would otherwise not want to look at or 534 00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:34,560 have looked at or thought about. And that leads me to this, I want to thank you from the bottom of 535 00:52:34,560 --> 00:52:40,080 my heart for listening. If you listen all the way through, you're a trooper. I appreciate you. I hope 536 00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:44,640 that you've learned something. You've gained some insights that's going to help you become a better 537 00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:50,640 person, which in turn will help society become a better place to live. And that you also have gained 538 00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:56,000 some insight into the way we shape our reality. And I want to leave you with this thought. 539 00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:02,240 Life is a matter of perception. Everything is a perspective. And what you see depends not just 540 00:53:02,240 --> 00:53:08,240 on what you look at, but also on where you look from. Take care, my friend. Until next time, 541 00:53:08,240 --> 00:53:15,600 I'm Alan Stafford for Life Unscripted.