It’s been hot enough recently to spot the odd mirage on the road.
You know – that optical illusion where, off in the distance, the road looks to be flooded with water, due to the heat haze. It’s all about the refractive index of light and the temperature of the tarmac, relative to the air. (I looked that up.)
It’s very convincing. It really looks like there’s a long stretch of water on the road, to negotiate. In fact, it’s indistinguishable from the real thing.
It’s the sort of scenario that, if you were hurtling down the motorway at 70mph, and you saw it fast approaching, you’d want to slow right down, to prevent aquaplaning. Or you might even come off the motorway at a junction, to avoid the flooded road.
But we don’t, do we? We just carry on as normal, marvelling at the comprehensive nature of the illusion, enjoying the ride.
Why?
Because we know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that it’s not true. It’s just a trick of the light.
Besides the two-things-you-need-to-know-to-enjoy-the-cinema metaphor that I often trot out, this one comes a close second in terms of its ability to point to the nature of our experience, and how to have an easier time of it, in general.
Because a mirage on the road is real—you experience it, as it is—but it’s not true.
And it’s really important that you know it’s not true, so that you don’t slow down, or leave the motorway. If there’s even a shadow of doubt, the mind will default to ‘risk’ avoidance, just in case.
Similarly, our entire experience of this thing we’ve labelled as ‘life’ or ‘reality’ is the same: it’s real—you experience it, as it is—but it’s not true.
It’s made of the Principle of Thought: 100% of it, without exception.
Nobody on planet earth can experience anything the exact same way you do. (10 people watching the same film, in the same room, at the same time, will have 10 different experiences.)
And if you don’t know it’s not true, well then you’ll innocently end up doing the behavioural equivalent of slowing down or coming off the motorway:
- Avoiding situations
- Avoiding feelings
- Reacting badly
- Turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms
- Developing mental health problems
…the full gamut of human misery, basically.
It all comes down to this. Every last bit of it.
(Which is why I write about it every day!)
And when you do know—when you’ve woken up to it, and it’s all been seen through as a wonderful trick of the mind—well then, you get to just carry on as normal, marvelling at the comprehensive nature of the illusion, enjoying the ride.
✨
Giles
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Giles P Croft
Just in case your mind’s all like, “So I have to see through it, yeah?”