This past week was my extended family's annual vacation gathering. Each year we get together in July to connect, enjoy each other's company, have fun, relax and create memories. This year we hired a magician to entertain the group during one of our evening gatherings. The magician started out by addressing the question..."Are magic and illusion the same the thing?" This question reminded me of my post from a few weeks ago on "The story I'm telling myself is...", so I decided to explore it a little more.
An illusion is an image that deceives the mind by producing a false impression of reality. Magic is defined as the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of devices. Magic and illusion are often considered to be the same thing.
Illusion is something that looks or seems different from what it is, something that is false but seems to be real. Illusion creates a false image in the mind of something that does not exist in reality. It is a false impression caused by the trick of sight and sound. Mirage is a perfect example of an illusion. It is the mind of a person that is tricked into believing something that is not real. Optical illusions and magic tricks shown by a magician are few examples of illusion. We know that the trick the magician is doing is not possible but he or she creates an illusion and that looks real.
I propose that life is an illusion of sorts. Sometimes we think we see or hear something based on our perception of the situation and we convince ourselves over and over again that the way we see it, our perception, is reality. Our mind is easily tricked into believing something that may not be real. We then create further stories in our mind to justify this reality and our brain looks for additional examples to help support the story.
Social media complicates our view of reality. Perceptions are created based on carefully crafted messages and images that cause us with limited amounts of information to form realities, most of which are truly just illusions.
Text messages can also be easily misconstrued without the benefit of hearing tone and seeing body language, causing us to create an illusion as to what we are seeing and hearing in our head. Something that is false, but appears real based on the made up stories in our head.
In the post a few weeks ago, I shared with you the idea of asking yourself the question…“The story I am telling myself is...", this week I invite you to also consider adding the question…“The illusion I am creating is…”. Being aware and challenging the stories and illusions that we are moment by moment creating, believing, and causing to be our reality can be difficult and yet liberating. It can help us get out from underneath the binds that fear and our perceptions create.
An illusion is an image that deceives the mind by producing a false impression of reality. Magic is defined as the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of devices. Magic and illusion are often considered to be the same thing.
Illusion is something that looks or seems different from what it is, something that is false but seems to be real. Illusion creates a false image in the mind of something that does not exist in reality. It is a false impression caused by the trick of sight and sound. Mirage is a perfect example of an illusion. It is the mind of a person that is tricked into believing something that is not real. Optical illusions and magic tricks shown by a magician are few examples of illusion. We know that the trick the magician is doing is not possible but he or she creates an illusion and that looks real.
I propose that life is an illusion of sorts. Sometimes we think we see or hear something based on our perception of the situation and we convince ourselves over and over again that the way we see it, our perception, is reality. Our mind is easily tricked into believing something that may not be real. We then create further stories in our mind to justify this reality and our brain looks for additional examples to help support the story.
Social media complicates our view of reality. Perceptions are created based on carefully crafted messages and images that cause us with limited amounts of information to form realities, most of which are truly just illusions.
Text messages can also be easily misconstrued without the benefit of hearing tone and seeing body language, causing us to create an illusion as to what we are seeing and hearing in our head. Something that is false, but appears real based on the made up stories in our head.
In the post a few weeks ago, I shared with you the idea of asking yourself the question…“The story I am telling myself is...", this week I invite you to also consider adding the question…“The illusion I am creating is…”. Being aware and challenging the stories and illusions that we are moment by moment creating, believing, and causing to be our reality can be difficult and yet liberating. It can help us get out from underneath the binds that fear and our perceptions create.
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