Deceiving your Perception, changes your Reality?

Introduction

Perception-based reality has been part of the human nature for a while, but does this really mean that the reality can be changed if your perception has been hacked? Appearances are deceptive, and most people know that. But what if someone came in a suit and sold you a shiny/polished used car, versus someone who came in jeans and t-shirt and sold an unclean Ferrari for cheaper. Which one are you prone to buy?

Another example: You hate littering and you see shreds of paper right outside your house. You see couple of young dude's standing 10-15 feet away from the shreds with books that had some ripped pages in their hands. Would you immediately assume that they are the root-cause of the shreds and either (1) stare at them, (2) walk & talk to them about your feelings (anger/rage or upsetting), or (3) identify that they could be the cause of it and yet ignore the situation as if nothing happened. Would you immediately think that there is the fourth possibility that these shreds of paper never belonged to the guys who standing 10-15 feet away and it could have either flown from somewhere or could be someone else who walked by your front door?

Why is your reality changing based on what you are seeing? Is your brain making judgements based on the fast processing or does it arrive at conclusions even before your have completed processed all your input? Is this why, it is better off to not write an email when you are angry, or not express any form of anger before you fully think the situation through? Let's delve deeper together...

What is perception?

To understand how to deceive ones perception, one has to understand what perception really means and the underlying etymology.

                                                                                                           Source: Google

Etymology is a branch of study that has been/gets ignored for convenience. But without understanding the origin, usage metrics and the various meanings of the word, it makes it really hard to understand the purpose.

People create mental impressions based on what their senses tell them, combined with their belief. Senses tell them what they are seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, but can all these senses be artificially triggered or blocked? Believing someone/something is a complex human nature that can be generated based on past characteristics, trait, trust, faith, confidence and other characteristic. Based on these multiple parameters, one perceives their surroundings, people (family, friends, others), situations and scenarios.

What is deception?

Deception is the act or action of deceiving someone. This could be through pretense, bluff, lying, etc.

                                                                                                           Source: Google

Derren Brown has multiple shows on how to trick human brain (by deceiving the senses, alerting mechanisms, subconscious triggers, etc.) and here is more on his Wiki. He uses the simplest concepts like the one shown in the movie Focus, where Will Smith (Nicky Spurgeon) tricks Bradley Darryl Wong (Liyuan Tse) in betting by subconsciously planting the number 55 for Liyuan to choose a player in the final betting.  Nicky losses a few bets for Liyuan to perceive that Nicky is vulnerable and that he is a loser, who is losing money constantly/consistently with crazy bets. Liyuan fell for the very fact that Nicky is losing it and accepts the final bet of over a Million US Dollars. What Liyuan failed to understand that this whole series of losses was to set a stage to fall for his own subconsciously stored value 55, that has been placed into his mind without his own involvement. Most people state that this is either impossible or some made up stuff, due to the very fact that it cannot be digested easily.

If you believe that this could not be true, then think about a scenario where you are driving from/to work on daily basis. You drive from Point A (home/work) to Point B (work/home) at different times of the day. Let us assume that you are driving in the same path over a weekend, you might either end up driving to work or at least closer to it even though you did not intend to go to work that day. Let us assume that you are now driving home from work after a very long late-night shift. You might end up reaching home safely, although you do not remember how you drove. How is it possible that you are so tired to even forget the fact that you drove home, and yet you followed the same exact path/directions?

This is very similar to getting up in the morning and doing the chores that you do on daily basis, since it is programmed in the subconscious mind. If this programmed without intent, can we alter this program in the subconscious mind with intent? Can we place something in your mind (not through your dreams as shown in the movie Inception) by giving you the series of events or senses that never happened/occurred, but yet something that alters your very sense of reality?

Altering Perception?

Here are some pointers to be discussed with examples, to understand how someone could alter perceptions:

• Changing the stage/background/setting makes people's reaction change. Example: Media interview in front of a choir versus. a media interview in the middle of a riot. People assume, peace vs. chaos.
• Changing the smell from soup to ash or something burning. Example: What if you enter a restaurant that smells great food, versus a restaurant that has burnt smell. People assume for great food vs. overly burnt cheap food.
• Changing the lines of speech in the interview by editing the response. Example: Simpsons picture (as shown in cover page) of the interview shows the flipping clock in the background, when media is trying to make the character look bad.
• Altering the hostility of the situation. Example: Making a situation look more hostile gives a higher perception of danger, to the viewers. Media sometimes utilizes this technique to show how the storm has gone worse, shooting incidents in the past, etc. to show the gravity of the situation.
• Changing the colors or shapes of the objects in the background. Example: Indirectly present a color or shape when talking to a user and then ask them to randomly pick a color. People generally pick the color or shape that gets loaded into their mind subconsciously, unless you are not vulnerable.
• Leveraging the situation by pretending to be an expert of something. Example: Presenting as an interview candidate, home inspection personnel, worker/builder, or as any other professional could change the perception of the people on you based on your job description/title.
• Other situation or scenarios, where one could alter reality.

Conclusion - Can reality be altered?

To answer the question "Can reality be altered?" one has to answer "What is reality?". So what is reality?

Reality originated from,

Question now is, is reality really absolute? Can reality be altered by objectives, beliefs, senses (what is being felt through sensory inputs), etc. Yes, reality of a situation is based on what one understands or perceives something to be real. You might feel that something is real based on how far that could be close enough to your levels of reality. A kid touches hot water and says that it is the hottest of what he/she has touched as opposed to an adult touching the same water and finding it warmer than cold (but not hot). The kid's version of reality is based on what the kid feels and has experienced (based on the kid's belief system), whereas the adults experience is quite different. Does this mean reality becomes a relative term? In reality, the word reality should not be a relative term, although it could be said that ones reality is almost always different from the reality of the other. Hence, deceiving your perception could definitely alter your version of reality depending on how exposed (experienced, faced situations, etc.) and trained (non-vulnerable, practiced, repeated simulations, etc.) you are. This is exactly why training your employees for such situations is very important. Some pointers to remember are,

• Document when the incident is fresh in your mind, as in, immediate.
• Utilize industry products & practices for documentation, as in, standardize.
• Practice as often as possible, as in, repetition & practice.
• Report to the corresponding authorities, as in, escalation & communication.

Adair and I had a discussion on this topic where we were talking about the Observer's Effect. There are are a few forms of observer's effects,

• Hawthorne effect - This effect occurs when the subjects modify their behavior based on the very fact that they believe that someone is watching them, or that they are being under observation.
• Observer-expectancy effect - Also known as the experimenter effect (in scientific research, in behavioral research), is one of the concepts that the experimenter adds bias to the experiments with the hypothesis that has to be proven.
• Observer effect in Physics - The very fact that you are observing a phenomenon, changes the state of it.

Why is it important to understand that a change of state causes a ripple effect and changes everything around it? Well, the answer is simple. If you are reading this blog, that would have changed your understanding on perception, deception and reality and that on itself caused a change of state in your mind, which could lead to (1) ignoring the facts and moving on, (2) understanding facts and removing the garbage, processing further to make your mind stronger or (3) not reading any of the future posts, and other possibilities. If you believe that the state of mind is simple, you are wrong! Mind is a very complex being and altering the state of it alters everything (your emotion, reaction, behavior, belief, moral, faith, trust, senses, code, etc). So despite all the steps you take as listed above, it is very hard to state that human mind can be controlled in a flawless fashion and making is non-vulnerable is almost always impossible, although it is feasible to maintain checks and balances through consistent training/practice.

If you have any comments, questions or concerns, please feel free to address them. You have the Freedom of Speech, so please speak up.

“If freedom of speech is taken away,
then dumb and silent we may be led,
like sheep to the slaughter.”
― George Washington

Disclaimer: Please note that these posts and what is described in them are for educational purposes only. Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.