#301 – Why are your Ghosts in cahoots with the outside world?

When you're able to see a tree and think "just tree," you'll be free. Your Ghosts, unemployed, will be lazily filing their nails and yawning at an empty wall.

Years ago, I helped a researcher in a project analyze audio descriptions of artwork for blind people. She thought that adding more emotion to these audio tracks would help users get more in touch with visual art.

I was to record three different tracks describing the scene in The Hours where Virginia Wolf (Nicole Kidman) enters the river with rocks in her pockets, each with a different tone: neutral, agitated, and soft.

Before the recording, the researcher had described the scene to me. In her eyes, the river flowed violently, almost with anger.

But when I watched the scene, her hypothesis appeared baseless to me: where she saw anger and violence, I saw peace and calm surrender.

One thing became clear: it's our life experiences that color our perception.

The Ghosts in my head determine how I see the world and how I feel about it. Why? Because they want to protect me from what they think will put me in danger.

So, if I had but peaceful experiences with rivers, my Ghosts will do nothing whenever I see a river.

But if one experience was traumatic, they'll try to keep me away from rivers, real or imaginary. How? By arousing emotions that freeze me, make me want to fight, or fly.

Thus, voiding reality of meaning––seeing things as they are without our projecting onto them what we feel––is the first step to spiritual liberation.

What changed for you when you stopped projecting yourself onto reality?

Love,

Carolina