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We turn, now, to an analogy. Consider your computer... or better yet, your television. As you know very well, when you tune to a particular channel, you receive the program playing on that channel: News, Masterpiece Theatre, Mousketeers... whatever. Different channels may be playing radically different programs, and all channel signals are simultaneously present at your tv system's tuner input. The tuner selectively filters the input signal to separate and amplify ONLY that part of the signal you wish to view.
computer We change channels like a television. We selectively filter available information from reality, paying particular attention to the part we are "tuned" to receive. Using this model, the five blind brothers in our story were each tuned to receive a different part of the elephant. But you and I do much more than that. In addition to selectively attending to parts of the input, we also assign those parts meaning.

Different beliefs, different meanings. Consider, for example, how half the people at a game can feel extremely happy about the game while the other half are equally depressed. They are reacting to the same external reality, but in radically different ways. They react differently because they have different beliefs; half the crowd believes it's vitally important for team "A" to win, the other half is just as convinced that team "B" should trounce the despicable team "A" opponents. It would seem that at least half the crowd is doomed to disappointment. But wait! There may be a way out. If the team you have been rooting for is clearly losing, you can switch your allegiance. By shifting your allegiance to the winning team, you magically go from sad to glad. You may be a weasel, but at least you're a happy weasel. The point is that by changing a belief you can improve how you feel about external events. Maybe there's good reason to not abandon our team in a time of need, but there are many other beliefs that are arbitrary, and can be changed for the better.

It's about at this point clients often object. "You're asking me to deny what I know is true!" they complain, "I can't do that. I can't lie to myself." Luckily, I'm not suggesting that at all. If you are like the brother who is holding the tail of the elephant, you DO have a piece of the truth; one aspect of the way things really are. Yet, there are other parts of the elephant, other ways of looking at reality, that are equally valid and true. If it seems to you that life is a rotten deal, that things aren't fair and that you're always getting dumped on ... maybe, just maybe, you're holding an elephant's tail. Blah! Perhaps you would like to discover other parts of the elephant? Parts that smell a little better? You'll still know all about the tail end, you just won't be required to spend all your time there. Oh. And life will smell much better.

Beliefs: the good, the bad, and the smelly. >>
© 2007 Richard V. Sansbury (letters@headworks.com)