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Perception: It's All In Your Head... But Should It Be?


Womans legs in reflection

When we think of perception, we probably come up with an explanation something like ‘it’s what I see in front of me, my views of a certain situation.’ We’d probably also agree that perception is personal.

But how is that so?

Why do I ‘perceive’ something in vast difference to the next person?

Am I under an illusion or perhaps I live in another reality?


We're going to go a little deep here and stretch the mind into philosophical thought. This one might take a few reads and some time to ponder but hopefully it will get your perception peaking!



What is Perception, Reality and Illusion?


We’ll kick off with a dictionary definition to level the field.

Perception is a belief or opinion, often held by many people and based on how things seem; Reality is the state of things as they are, rather than as they are imagined to be; and Illusion is an idea or belief that is not true.

And now…

I ask you to put aside your illusory perception of reality and journey with me down a road less travelled.



A New Framework for Awareness


A picture paints a thousand words so I’ll start with one. Hold this thought as you go.



Perception is the Mothership


Perception is beyond our thinking mind and guides us home into the chalice of our own heart. It is the powerful and, if not persistent quantum exchange of pleasure-seeking momentum. It’s what we feel, not what we think.


As humans, we seek out that which brings us joy, clarity and patience. When we perceive amongst these things a disruption, that is when our human instinctual behaviour sets in.


And so, enters the thinking mind.



Limited Reality


We move away from our heart’s truth and allow our thoughts to battle out what we have deemed to be the reality of a situation. They are of course, just the concepts of an overthinking and overbearing mind, limited by our own experience and environment.


When internal chatter, noise and struggle prevents thought forms from creating in their own unlimited playground, then the perception of anything – truth, love, anger, resentment – falls apart. The heart’s truth can no longer feel, and the proxy state of balance can no longer be held. The scales tip and the grip on reality is loosened, falling down as the rigor of the overthinking mind comes into full force to make rational statements of vague or questionable argument.


It is not true that the mind “makes up itself”. It is a truer statement to say that the mind creates an illusion to distract itself from the emotional response it does not want to feel in its own reality. By intervening with illusion, perception and reality become a thing of the past.



Illusion: The Escape Artist


In this illusory state, no ‘forward-thinking’ will be able to flee the trapped representation which the mind is now forging ahead with. It is not that the mind has not the intellect to pull back the horse reigns and stop the cart from a descent down a rocky road. But the mind is the maker of all tragedy and so not only controls the reigns, but the cart and the descent. If the mind were to take charge, it would have to choose which of these paradigms it wishes to destruct and that, is the passage back to perception.


But to do so, the mind will need to perceive the honorary role of taking the back seat and allow for the creative and imaginative role-play to ensue. By stepping back into the shadows, it can escape its thinking state and once again, is able to perceive a rational reality of all options at hand by engaging with the feelings fed by the heart. If it chooses not to engage with these feelings, we circle back to illusion!



The Truth Trinity


Of itself, the mind holds the restrictive power of free and forward thinking and can heavily impact what we are each capable of experiencing. The truth of perception is that one can only believe within their own mindset. The realisation/actualisation of thought forms is what creates our reality. Reality is nothing more, nor less than the restrictions one’s mind puts on itself. The illusion that stems from this power is the blind faith and following of what the mind perceives to be true.


For example, when the mind allows itself to ‘free-think’ (beyond the limitations set by self and other’s realities, illusions and perceptions) it creates a powerful intervention in which only the heart is capable of ascertaining the ‘truth’ beneath the ‘thought’. If the heart emotes that the thought form is well meaning, the mind then has the green light signalling it into creation and so the start of a new reality is born. This minuscule and momentary happening has the powerfully explosive potential of holding not only the dreamer, but others to this perception of truth. And so forth, we as a human race build new realities, from new thoughts of perception, all under the illusory lens of creation.



Cycle Back to The Beginning


Let’s go back to our Awareness Map and look at the definitions of Perception, Reality and Illusion under a new lens.


What if…

Perception becomes a belief or opinion, held by one or many, based on how your own heart feels; Reality becomes the state of things as they are, depicted by the impediment of your mind’s limiting beliefs; and Illusion becomes an idea or belief that is true within your own thinking mind.

Can we therefore trust what we perceive?


Well, that’s a question for your heart.



Beyond our Reality


What if we were to step back yet further out of human reality? Would we find a blank wall, waiting for new pictures, new creative influences and new love-founded opportunities to magically appear?


Within ‘my’ perception, I see that inside our thought-form, human reality, all is what it seems as the creative principles allow it to be so. However, in a love-founded, universal reality, the creative principles are complex, layered in the fabric of universal law.


Reality beyond this earth is inherently free of constraints. It cannot be controlled, limited or even contained. It creates within and of itself, ever expressing new and creative notions that can forever be explored. The human reality is limited; all realities beyond are exponential.



Why is Human Reality Limited?


Because of the mind construct that surrounds our own physiological density. Quantum mechanics shows the power of potential and play that exists in the fabric of the universal mind. I believe it has leaked through to our consciousness to open our own limited thinking. It is not of this reality but within this reality – the backdrop so to speak in which our earthly reality has been created. Like a canvas upon which a masterpiece is crafted. Colour and movement can be built and built upon the canvas, but the canvas remains unchanged – it is but a canvas after all.


The perception of this canvas is vastly impacted by the artist – the creator, the dreamer, the thinker – as we paint, we pave new realities on the sturdy structure. Do we experience the canvas or do we experience the masterpiece? As with one thought, the artist chooses to lash the canvas in a blanket of white – and so creation begins again, and reality is changed forever.


Perception is therefore not single-minded. There are many canvases – 7.9 billion to be precise. Something to deeply contemplate at this precise moment in time.


  • Are you best utilising your heart’s truth or your mind’s thinking truth?

  • Are you held back by limited beliefs?

  • Are you creating new thought-forms for joy and clarity?

  • Is your mind currently in a space of over-thinking and does it need to take a back seat?


To be truly under the spell of creation is to allow your perception to take a free ride…and paint with all the colours.



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