Open Your Eyes: Open Your Mind

"There are two ways we react when new information is received: we either change our mind or alter the facts. One method can be scary but the other is downright dangerous."

Our minds have been shaped by rules since kindergarten. Rules not only about our own behavior and compliance, but rules about the very universe itself. Besides “you must do this; you mustn’t do this” we have received lectures on the realms of possibility with statistics from the National Science Organization to back up these claims.

I do not put my loyalty in science. Besides from the erroneous scientific method, which implants the idea that outliers are insignificant, I keep in mind all of the times science has been wrong in the past, from the fallacy of the world being flat to bloodletting with leeches. I am aware that technology has greatly improved since these times but having high-tech microscopes do not fill us with wisdom. However, I will acknowledge the fact many scientists have learned from mistakes of the past but even that does not change the core values in which the scientific community is based upon.

For the record, I am not some religious nut trying disprove the entire science community and convert you to whatever. There have been amazing discoveries in science but I do not agree with the one-track mindset the scientific community seems to have, which is that there is a duality in the universe, “right and wrong”, “possible and impossible” etc. In fact, this is also a main problem I have in the religious community.

A mindset many people have is wanting to see what they believe, instead of believing what they see, even if these sights may be abstract or have no “rational” explanation. I have known families who have all witnessed things flying across the room, non-physical entities and alternate realities to name a few experiences, but simply write off these occurrences because they collide with what they already think they know.

The problem is that our minds are chained to these rules that have been chimed repeatedly to us to the point where we take them as truth instead of questioning and attempting to disprove. Every single one of us was born into this mystery of the universe and instead of relying on our own experiences for truth, listened to somebody else’s beliefs that they learned from someone else, who learned it from somebody else and so on and so forth. This culture perpetuates the game of telephone in forms of customs, traditions and beliefs. Most religious communities make it sacrilege to question their doctrine and authority. It is absolutely ridiculous institutions of so-called learning do their best to deprive their followers of a genuine education.

The fear of insanity has also been instilled in us. It is the idea that if you do not follow everybody else’s beliefs or if you had some kind of unique experience then you are crazy. You are told it’s not real, that it’s all in your mind but reality is subjective. We are all different people and therefore our perspectives are not the same. There is not an “one size fits all” when it comes to ideas.

I am not saying psychiatry does not have its place. I do believe a person should seek help if their experiences make it difficult for them to cope with day-to-day life, induce extreme anxiety/ paranoia and just generally harms the individual. However, if the person experiencing these phenomena is not suffering from any of the aforementioned negative symptoms then it is not our place to write them off as insane and to be frank, it is quite presumptuous to do so.

I am not writing this to convert anybody to any form of theism or belief. I do not care what you believe as long as you have arrived at these beliefs with the power of your own thought. This is an attempt to end this game of telephone. There needs to be a mass movement of stepping out of the rules we have been commanded to obey. Stop hiding your eyes from everything you choose to not see, stop fearing the unknown, stop shunning difference. Open your eyes, open your mind and begin your life.