All people are like people. They do something, rejoice when they feel good, and suffer when they feel bad. Today was a good day! But yesterday, not so much. And with each new day we plunge into real life in order to live through all the fuss, realize ourselves and get from it what we want. And there are others - those who escape reality.
They don't care about and don't need real life. This phenomenon is called escapism - when a person replaces real life with an alternative one. Why the phenomenon? Because lately there are more and more people who are running away from reality. A person of any age, from young to old, can suffer from escapism.
These people for the most part lose touch with reality, preferring to be away from it, and yet they are burdened with obligations and are forced to return back. Those who are younger - because their parents are unhappy and pull them out of this state. And those who are older are forced to work to survive.
At the same time, the escape from reality can be different. This article will discuss two types of escapism:
1. People who are subject to illusions and dream of all the benefits of our life. The so-called escape from reality into a fantasy world - where a person has everything and everything is good for him. Everything works out for him. Life is good. But all this is only an illusion. In reality there is nothing. He does not desire and does not achieve - he draws himself a beautiful illusion and imagines. Meanwhile, life passes by. Fantasies are replaced by other fantasies - that’s all.
Such people are forced to leave their state in the real world in order to provide for themselves, but they do this, as a rule, at a minimal level. For them, illusions are primary, and when they enter the real world, they feel it is angry, joyless and cruel towards them.
2.People who are susceptible to escaping reality into the virtual world. They act as an antipode to those who live in illusions. They don’t need anything, they don’t dream of benefits. They need not to be touched or disturbed. They love silence, the night and the computer. Of course, nowadays many people are fond of games and very often spend all their free time on the computer. But here we are talking about replacing the real world with a virtual one.
When such a person is forcibly pulled out: they shout, beat, pull out the cord, turn to a psychologist - all this only causes aggression in him, and he begins to hate even more those who interfere with him.
I see this picture more and more often, and the question arises: how to get these people out of their world so that they begin to live an ordinary life and enjoy it. After all, everyone understands that this is not a person’s super skill - it is a problem that interferes with life.
And the problem is purely psychological, and all psychological problems have a cause.
The reason for leaving reality is accurately diagnosed at the training “System-vector psychology” by Yuri Burlan.
What is illusionism
It is no coincidence that the name of this philosophical movement is consonant with the word “illusionist,” which we use to mean “magician.”
Philosopher and writer Keith Frankish, author of Illusionism as a Theory of Consciousness and a PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield in the UK, explains the concept of illusionism through magic tricks. Imagine: you see on stage how a magician performs telekinesis - that is, moves objects “with the power of thought.” You can offer several explanations for this phenomenon. The first is that it is real, quite understandable from the point of view of science, we just have not yet discovered those laws of physics that could give it a rational justification. The second is that the trick is carried out with the help of well-studied physical phenomena, such as electromagnetism. In this case the event is still real. Finally, there is a third option: decide that this is all an illusion and no telekinesis is happening - and then try to explain how the magician managed to trick your brain so much.
So, the first two interpretations correspond to the concept of realism, and the last one corresponds to the philosophical concept of illusionism. Illusionism denies the reality, the objectivity of any phenomenon - and focuses on how the perception of it as real, existing in this world arises.
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Is it possible to dream?
What then to do with dreams, images in a year, five, ten years? Also forget and remain in that dear, but still stuck in the real world?
Illusions and dreams, fortunately, are not the same thing. If you listen to yourself, you can easily distinguish between them.
The first ones are in severe conflict with reality, and you feel it. There is an ever-growing discomfort inside. Either the far-fetched image deviates from the course, or the desires are not real, but imposed. Family, society, influential person. In both cases, you feel pressure and an outflow of energy. Every step to the side is pain, a new broken window in your home-soul. Therefore, you need to immediately get rid of illusions
so as not to completely destroy yourself.
Dreams work differently. They inspire. They force you to try, make mistakes, fall, shake off your broken knees and move forward again. When desires find a response in the soul, a lot of vital energy is generated for their fulfillment. They never come into conflict with reality. On the contrary, it seems that you are being pulled towards your cherished dreams.
This is how you can distinguish between illusions and real desires. What to do if you find destructive inventions in yourself?
Consciousness = illusion
The column, which Keith Frankish published in the culture and philosophy magazine Aeon, begins with an already annoying reference to the film “The Matrix”. Red or blue pill, Neo? A pleasant illusion or a brutal truth about a reality that is actually not real at all? Frankish offers his readers another “pill” that encroaches on something even more sacred than the existence of our world: the reality of human consciousness.
He explains this again with a simple example. There is a red apple that lies on the table in front of you. You see an apple because light reflected from the surface of the fruit hits the light-sensitive cells in the retina. Next, they send a tranche of electrochemical impulses along the optic nerve to the brain, and voila - you become aware of the image of a red apple. But are you really aware of it?
This is where the conversation about the illusion of consciousness begins. The apple is real (unlike the spoon, which “does not exist” in The Matrix), and no one argues with the fact that we see it. But our perception of this apple, like all the sensations associated with it - memories, desires, associations - do not add any information to the physical world. Emotions and sensations are not made of atoms, they are ephemeral - which means how can they have any influence on anything, even our own thoughts and actions?
How to stop living in illusions
I consider one of the main achievements of personal therapy to be the fact that I stopped living a fictitious life.
Since childhood, every day and every hour I lived two scenarios simultaneously - like two sound sequences during editing.
The first scenario is the real and external me. The one who remained silent, swallowed, didn’t do, didn’t say, didn’t come out, didn’t push through, didn’t show herself, and somewhere on the contrary, didn’t show herself the way she wanted. This part of me is 90% “not” and there are a number of reasons for this.
This is a movement from scarcity, not from excess. Conventionally, this is when we do something “as if it’s no worse.” Vivid examples: I don’t leave a boring job because I don’t know what’s ahead / I stay in a relationship so as not to be alone / I don’t speak publicly so as not to embarrass myself and feel ashamed. Many actions in my life were performed from a deficit and in order not to have something. I very rarely went to the point of yes.
And everything would have continued like this if it weren’t for the second audio track in the edit. If it weren’t for the second scenario that I was scrolling through in my head, I wouldn’t know that you can move towards and do it because you want to do it, despite everything.
According to the second scenario, I did everything, said it, pushed it, came up with it, went out and showed up. And I called this second scenario an imaginary me and an imaginary life.
But this was a purely internal fictional life, which rarely manifested itself outside. These were illusions about how things could be.
I was always sure that I was not smart enough, beautiful, talented, successful enough, and that all my achievements were an accident that I really wanted to repeat. And I repeated. I changed professions, searched for myself, built relationships with people, received feedback that I could not assimilate.
My egotism did not allow me to adequately assess reality and my contribution to it. Positive feedback passed through, and I continued to live in my illusions about who I really am - stupid, ugly, unworthy, etc.
Why are illusions needed?
Keith Frankish believes that nature created for us the illusion of consciousness in the process of evolution for some good reason - which means that for some reason this illusion is needed. Even if it does not carry any additional physical meaning.
But Yuval Noah Harari in his book Homo Deus expresses an even more radical idea. He suggests that consciousness as the perception of our own self, all our sensations and emotions, are just a “side effect” of the evolution of our complex brains. In this case, consciousness is no more useful than wisdom teeth and male nipples.
Harari goes so far in his reasoning that even the creators of The Matrix would be jealous. He takes the idea of consciousness to the point of absurdity: the only proof of its existence, says Harari, is a person’s own experience. “I think, therefore I am.” But at the same time, you, as a conscious person, will not be able to check in any way whether your partner, colleague, neighbor and Harari himself have consciousness. What if the only one who has consciousness is you, and the rest of the people are soulless robots or avatars from virtual reality?
Let's go further: where did you get the idea that your consciousness is real, and that you really are not in the “Matrix”? Because if we assume that there are millions of imaginary worlds, then the probability that you are in the real one tends to zero. Therefore, from a mathematical point of view, it is quite logical to say that consciousness is an illusion created using virtual reality, and you are in the “Matrix”.
If you think about it too much, you can seem to go crazy. Therefore, let us return to the premise that the world is real. But consciousness - why is it needed? And how does it appear? Harari explains: scientists only know that the sense of self, emotions and feelings are born as a result of the interaction of a mass of electrical impulses. But, even if we were not aware of our sensations - for example, fear, attraction, hunger, and so on - these same impulses would still force us to look for food, mate and in every possible way fight for survival.
Why then be aware of all this, and, as a result, experience suffering, reflect, search for the meaning of life? Isn't this the main bug of our highly developed brain?
Escaping reality from a psychological point of view
According to the knowledge of the training “System-vector psychology” by Yuri Burlan, people who are susceptible to this problem have a sound and/or visual vector. A vector is a set of values, properties and desires of a person. There are few such people - 5% of visual and 5% of auditory people of the entire world population.
People with a visual vector are naturally very sensitive and emotional. All the events that happen to them seem incredible to them. These are the people who have a rich imagination and tend to make mountains out of molehills.
As they develop, all their emotionality and imagination are realized in a profession where they need to be sensitive, smart, and creative. Such people can become excellent teachers, actors, directors, photographers, scholars, presenters, and so on.
What does it mean - with proper development? When a child in childhood is fully provided with a sense of security and safety, when his talents are developed according to his natural properties.
Thus, for children with a visual vector, it is very important to build an emotional connection with an adult (parent, especially mother or guardian), because they have the greatest emotional amplitude - from fear of death to love. Then the visual child develops his abilities without fear of anything.
It often turns out that adults do not provide a sense of security, and the visual child feels strong fear of everything that happens in his life. Fear for such a child is severe suffering, due to his emotionality and sensitivity. The child is trying to get away from suffering - but where to go? He can't go anywhere. And creates an illusion (dream, fantasy) where everything is fine. Where he is happy, and his parents love him, and everyone loves him.
At the same time, the loss of a sense of security and safety may be short-term, and a little later the child stops escaping reality and returns to normal. This may be due to temporary difficulties in the family or a breakdown in emotional ties.
The viewer, who has been accustomed since childhood to escaping reality into the world of illusions, will prefer them. After all, such a person still lacks emotional connections, he has not learned to build them and thereby live in society. And he still experiences extreme fear in the real world.
How are illusions different from hallucinations?
Life situations can create conditions under which people experience perceptual disturbances. Illusions and hallucinations can cause such disorders; even a healthy person is not protected from them. How to distinguish one from the other:
- As a result of illusion, one can see real things from a completely different side or with a greater distortion of reality. Common mistakes with which a person can see something, for example, in the dark, mistaking some things and objects for others, or mistaking a bright leaf from a tree for a mushroom cap, can occur in completely healthy people. Such errors should be distinguished from a painful perception of reality.
- Hallucinations appear where there is nothing. Haunting images can occur against the background of psychosis. In healthy people they occur if they are in a state where their consciousness is altered.
Look at the fake institution of modern democracy.
And you will understand that the outcome of the elections depends only on which political force is more successful in fooling you.
The illusion of freedom of choice is a powerful oppressor, because fools are slaves who think they are free. Have no illusions: you are still kept on a leash.
The illusion of accessibility of truth.
Truth is a touchy subject in our culture. It is as if we are programmed to constantly seek the truth.
One part of any society in the state mindlessly trusts everything that television tells it, the other does not believe anything at all that journalists say. Both extremes are utter stupidity.
If you want to maintain peace and freedom in your soul, learn to think for yourself.
And remember that there are always two sides to any truth. Even if someone hides them.
The illusion of time.
They say time is money, but that's a lie. Time is your life.
Stop thinking solely in terms of the five senses and in accordance with the schedule and calendar.
We proceed from the fact that the spirit is eternal, and every human soul is a part of this eternity.
And the main deception: they do their best to convince us that the present moment does not matter.
As if we are obliged to always analyze our past and look forward to a better future.
Instead, we, the free people, invite you to focus on what is happening right here and now.
If you are focused not on what is happening now, but on what may (or may not) happen in the future, then you are an easy prey for advertisers, authorities and other pimps who cloud your mind with all sorts of fears.
We are happy when life does not hit us over the head, when spontaneity and chance are more interesting to us than grandiose plans, and when your now is more important than your tomorrow.
If time is money, then life could be measured in dollars. If dollars are worth less to you than life, then they must be worth to you than time, which is what this life consists of.
I have to be good to everyone
This illusion is very energy-consuming, because you won’t be able to be good to everyone, no matter how hard you try. Each of us has our own value system and picture of the world, which means that we will always have both supporters and opponents, and this is absolutely normal.
The presence of this illusion leads to vulnerability, dependence on the opinions of others, as well as perfectionism. A person will constantly expend his energy trying to please someone and get upset if this does not happen. Working on your self-esteem will help you take back control.
How to get rid of expectations
Review your life, find moments when everything worked out. Remember how you thought? What was the perception? And most importantly, try to start looking at life, rejoicing at opportunities, rather than complaining about failures. This skill, like a good habit, must be reinforced for life. It is difficult to break yourself in one day, or even in a week or month. Therefore, just try to gradually apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
Namely, start to rejoice within every opportunity that arises, thereby you, like a muscle, will begin to increase the level of your happiness, and, accordingly, after some time you will see more and more situations that will delight you.
And expectations are tension, illusions and, ultimately, disappointments. Give thanks for what you have and you will receive many times more. Learn to give up your expectations and accept life as it is. When you learn to refuse and let go of situations, then you will begin to get what you want. Thank you for your attention to my article and I will be grateful if you subscribe to my Instagram! There's a lot of interesting things there! Click the button below and subscribe:
