Illusions 

 

Most people attribute their failure to behave the way they had intended to factors within themselves such as weakness, perversity, or disease.  Task difficulty is almost always under-rated.  That people voluntarily persist in their self-destructive behavior - substance abuse, compulsive gambling, love addiction, binge eating, pornography fixation, etc. - even though they report it gives them more pain than pleasure is testimony to how formidable is the challenge. 

We fail at a specific moment - the moment of the first lapse - although at that moment choosing to lapse did not appear to be a failure.  In hindsight we appreciate the error, but no matter how painful the lesson it does not decrease the odds that we will make the same blunder the next chance we get.

The costs and benefits of a lapse look different just before the lapse than the next day.   Appraisals of costs and benefits change with local conditions.  The state-dependent bias is so fundamental that we do not - cannot - perceive that our perception is biased by local conditions!  We believe that we perceive things as they are, but this is an illusion!

State-dependent bias is always present and always invisible, and so we are continually taken in by it. Failure to appreciate this illusion is the source of great sorrow.  The images below - while limited to the visual modality - illustrate that perception is an active construction of the mind rather than a valid representation of objective reality.

Angels and Devils - M. C. Escher

parallel lines

The mind forms shapes that don't exist

old woman/young girl

As fast as you can name the color of ink that each word is written

then start over and read each word

Who do you think is bigger?

man/woman

face/vase

straight lines?

impossible triangle

impossible trident

impossible shape

Shimmer

Any movement you see is an optical illusion

After a necker cube [above] is perceived from one perspective, it will naturally tend to change to the other in about 3 seconds.

waterfall [enhanced] M. C. Escher

For a further explanation please see:

  The Soul's Illusion

  For information on the path to independence please see:

Pathology and the Study of Paths