As I’ve read back over this article to make final edits before posting, I’m noticing my discomfort with the many, many holes in the argument I’m proposing. The ideas presented here are not fully fleshed out and need further thought and clarification and in their current state, could be disputed easily. However, as I dive deeper into the world of philosophy, I believe I’m finding at least some support for them. Schopenhauer seems to be suggesting it with his proposition that an object cannot exist without a subject to perceive it. Heidegger seems to proposing a similar idea. Physicists of our time are more and more putting forth a “simulation model” that would also fit somewhat with the ideas below. At the moment, however, I’m unsure of all this. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood those philosophies. I know for certain that I don’t possess enough understanding to fully claim anything physics says. Hopefully, I’m at least on the right track though and will be at the destination some day. For now then, forgive me while I put forth a provocatively titled, tentatively stated, beginning of an incomplete idea.
I’ve heard time and time again that that those involved in organized religion tend to score higher on measures of health and overall wellness and report greater levels of satisfaction and happiness. What’s their secret? Is it really the man in the sky watching over them, ensuring their wellbeing? Unlikely I think. Social support and the resources that come along with it are likely the culprit and the ones that research has pointed to. But if believing in a made up god can make you live longer, why not just do that? Because it’s silly, that’s why. BUT they may be onto something. They may have accidentally cracked the code. Ever heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster) Pastafarianism was explained to me by a friend and although his description of the “movement” gave a little more credit than was due, his idea stuck with me. To butcheringly paraphrase him, “Christians make up a god and in the process also invent meaning and purpose but the brain doesn’t necessarily distinguish between the real and the made up in that regard and so they benefit psychologically and otherwise from it as if it were real. They’ve convinced themselves that someone big up above has a vested interest in their wellbeing and the brain and body accepts it as true and follows suit. As an additional byproduct of this act, they gain a supportive community which further benefits them psychologically and otherwise. The Pastafarians just did the same thing and then said, if we’re going to make up a god, let’s have some fun with it. We’ll make our higher power out of spaghetti and we’ll dress up like pirates when we go to praise him!”
Again, I learned later there may have been a bit of artistic license to that description but the point still stands. What then for those of us who can’t put our lives into the hands of a fairy tale (or who don’t want to dress up like pirates)? Can we can still use a similar line of thought to get a great return on investment through this subtle bending and shaping of reality. The answer is yes and you’ve likely already been doing it every day without even knowing it. Homer Simpson isn’t real. He does not exist, yet he’s had a major positive influence on my life and continues to do so (although the last several seasons of the Simpsons have sucked even more than the “crappy” ones from the previous years). Homer has an effect on us because we act “as if” he were real. Most of us believed in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy when we were kids and we enjoyed the holidays all the more for it. We thought magic was real and we felt excitement and joy when our uncle pulled a quarter out of our ear. We also felt pure terror because we were sure there was a ghost in our house. There surely is an objective material world out there and humans, like all other creatures, are subject to its laws but there’s also a large part of our existence that’s purely subjective and perceptual. If you chose to believe in a certain way, then for you, it is true in a very valid sense. If I believe you hate me, it matters very little if you actually do or don’t hate me. Every word and action you say or take will be interpreted through that biased lens and I’ll likely always end up with the idea that I am hated. This is my perceptual truth and it has a real effect on me. It may not be real reality but it is the reality I chose to let affect me. It may not be reality but I can fool my primitive brain into believing it is and end up with the exact same result. In this way, like the religious, we’re just working the system.
Keep in mind that this is a psychotherapy related blog. Our goal here is greater mental and emotional health; aka feeling better. If it’s potentially the case that the religious make up “truth” and benefit from it, if it’s potentially the case that we act as if a cartoon idiot is real and get laughter from him then why not put this to use therapeutically? If you believe you’re rotten and unlovable then, why not reverse engineer it and believe good things for yourself? If you feel that you’ll never amount to anything, why keep believing it if you don’t have to? If, as this argument suggests, reality is somewhat perceptual and arbitrary, why then would you chose one that works against your best interests when you have the ability to believe another way? I’ve met sooooooo many client’s over the years who have said things like “I can’t do that, I’m bipolar” or “Nah, I’ll never be able to accomplish that, I’m an alcoholic”. This is the same thing we’re talking about, just in the opposite direction. If your chosen narrative of helplessness can render you helpless, why not, then could a narrative of agency give you more mastery over your environment?
Here’s where we run into a bit of a conundrum though. Am I suggesting you just ignore your feelings and copout by just believing “objectively” untrue things about yourself? Am I really suggesting that the most lowly child rapist on death row just do some mental jujitsu and end up with “I’m a good person”? For better or worse, he can and that is part of my nihilism argument from a while back (https://brandonpeterslpc.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/meet-your-new-bff-nihilism/) and although problematic and worth noting, for our thoughts today this is somewhat beside the point.
The short answer to the copout question above is, of course, no. To clarify that no, we must take a very different track where therapy itself is at the heart of the answer. I frequently tell my clients that there are stages in therapy. Essentially, the first several stages involve healing and cleaning up trauma so that in the later stages we can fool and, in the process, rewire the brain in a positive direction much in the same way that trauma has done previously in the opposite direction. Trauma fools you into thinking you’re terrible and therefore, you act terrible and those actions serve to reinforce a whole circular process. After the trauma is more or less healed, we can then use things like, diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, meditation, mindfulness, etc., to trick the brain into believing you’re good, which eventually solidifies into a new subjective truth; I am good. Trauma forces us to believe terrible things about ourselves and we act as if it were true and get terrible results. Clearing up the effects of trauma then, allows us to make a different choice and we, therefore, get better results. Are we objectively better? Who knows. Subjectively and perceptually, however, we are better and therefore, our brain and body accepts it as true and reacts accordingly. In this way, we’re taking a subjective state, treating it as an objective state and in the process getting more or less objective results. We’re actively choosing our reality. Just like the religious, we’re choosing a certain way of looking at the world and reaping the benefits of that choice. Just like them, we’re just working the system.
With the disclaimers about the holes in this idea noted and the tentativeness established, there you have it. To an extent, reality is subjective and you can bend it and shape it in the way that’s beneficial to you. I say do so. The religious of the world have been doing it thousands of years. Now it’s your turn. Go work the system.
Unrelated Song Recommendation: Meh…given the title of this blog, I guess a band called “God Dethroned” is kind of related? Maybe?
Unrelated Book Recommendation: Totally out of left field here and VERY much unrelated…
The U.S. Army Survival Handbook. I actually learned quite a bit from this book!
Brandon Peters, LPC 