[caption id=“attachment_5672” align=“alignleft” width=“278”] Not three, but four monkeys[/caption]

Incredible! Or credible? You know how people say that “I believe it when I see it!” and that that right there is thought by many as a sound approach to reality. And it is also considered okay to not to believe it once it is seen by someone else. As long as it isn’t you who’s doing the seeing. But how is it when you do see it, and still don’t believe it - even when it is you yourself who saw it? Is that the right approach to reality?

We say that seeing is believing, but when what we see doesn’t correspond at all with our sense of reality, seeing may become tantamount to not experiencing it at all. We may hide it in the depths of our minds - like it never happened. But that little bit of memory left just might do the trick of believing another’s experience next time, leaving us a wee bit more open to believing them, even when what they saw still doesn’t quite correspond to our sense of reality. We become more considerate, perhaps, but that might still be a long way from supporting someone else. For that’s who they still are - someone else.

When does it occur, the crossing over the threshold of point of view? It is an individual thing of course. Some of us are so keen on keeping up appearances, that to change a view on a fundamental level feels just too big of a leap. Some of us like to take the leap no matter what. We get ready for it gradually, and once it happens, it can be a terribly liberating thing.

And of course, once we witness something in masses, it can be called either a mass hallucination, or a common experience. Even then we might not believe just by having someone standing next to us who chooses not to believe. We find comfort in the mutual disbelief, and may even ridicule the believers even when they clearly are in majority. For we all know that the majority may be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time that happens.

So, what to believe? Your own eyes? Your accumulative stock of experiences? For the fact of the matter is that no matter how or why we believe that a thing is real, it is what it is inspite of us. We are but spectators in the ever changing and still a bit mysterious world, and we can as spectators toy with ideas and toss around our convictions to our heart’s content. But still not matter but to ourselves. Far better then to just live and let live, and give that benefit of the doubt. And of course, trust your own self.