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Seeing Is Believing...Or Is It?

© Jerry Lopper

If you're a person who believes that seeing is believing, you may be limiting your own growth. Seeing is believing may be the test of truth for many of us, but that doesn't mean that what we see is truth. We tend to see what we expect to see based on what we believe. I may read and re-read this article five times and still not see a misspelling, extra word, or missing word. I read what I expect to see and I believe I've seen it correctly.

To foster a foundation for strong personal growth, change that phrase to read: believing is seeing. What you and I believe will determine what we see. Beliefs are very strong; witness the number of terrorists willing to take their own lives in pursuit of their beliefs. But before we examine the link between beliefs and self empowerment, lets review our five senses and the roles they play in our lives.

We obviously rely on our senses for safety and security, watching for danger around us, listening for unusual sounds around the home at night, sniffing the air for signs of smoke, and carefully approaching the hot pan before grabbing it.

We also tend to depend on our senses to explain the world around us. Most of us believe that the world we experience through our five senses is reality. The sayings, "Seeing is believing," and "I'll believe it when I see it," represent our dependence on sight to confirm reality. Recall that most people at one time thought the world was flat; that's the way it appeared. Some few, though, saw beyond their sense of sight and believed the distant horizon was not the edge of the world; they were right and whole new vistas of reality opened because of their vision.

Recall the phrase, "A picture is worth 1000 words?" The implication here is that a picture tells the truth, while words can be deceiving. Now with digital photography, we've learned that we can't really trust a picture. Even I can easily manipulate a picture to remove or include objects. All is not as it appears.

We all know human hearing is limited. As we age, we lose high frequency sensitivity. Many animals respond to frequencies even youthful humans cannot hear. It is only recently that scientists found that elephants communicate through very low frequency sounds--sounds that travel tremendous distances in their native habitats. We know that sounds exist that we cannot hear.

Similarly, our senses of touch, smell, and taste are very limited. Not only do our sensitivities to these vary, but our interpretations vary too. Something that tastes salty to me may be perfect for you. Pleasant odors to you may be