As we move through life, it is natural that we grow increasingly cynical of the world around us. Relationships collapse, friends come and go, people we assumed we could trust stick us with a raw deal. However, there is some comfort in knowing we can always rely on our own consciousness and intuition, no matter how warped everyone else's may seem to be . . . or so we might think.
Turns out, our own mind is as shifty and manipulative (and conversely, manipulable) as our worst human enemy. It can be altered with chemicals, tricked into believing in things that never happened or existed and induced into a hypnotic stupor.
Although consciousness can be altered in a myriad of ways, hallucinations are perhaps the most striking example because they involve the mind perceiving realistic experiences without outside stimuli. The fact that the visual cortex becomes active when the mind is hallucinating speaks to the strength -- and vulnerability -- of the human consciousness. Self-professed "sane" individuals may comfort themselves by thinking only mentally unstable people experience hallucinations. But this is far from the case. According "Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding," the number of college students who have experienced a hallucination during the day at least once may be as high as 39%.
Thus, everyone at complete honesty with him or herself must eventually confront the truth that we cannot trust our own consciousnesses. True, not everyone will experience a visual or auditory hallucination in their lives, but everyone will be fooled with in some way by their own minds. Even something as innocuous as having a dream is technically an example of the "mind" lying to the "brain," so to speak. But rather than be unsettled by the fact that our brain does not always give us an accurate depiction of reality, we should embrace it. Some states of altered consciousness can be incredibly beneficial. Hypnosis has been shown to help some people (in conjunction with well-established treatment methods) to quit smoking. Dreams can aid in processing complex emotional memories and provide endless intrigue. By experiencing alternative vantage points of perception, we can better equip our minds to go about the business of life.
The Terrifying (and Beautiful) Truth that We Can't Even Trust Ourselves
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It's really disconcerting that our brains can't be trusted absolutely. I remember listening to an episode of Radiolab and hearing that the more times a memory is recalled, the more our mind changes it. If we can't even trust our own memories, it's scary to think what else we might think is true!
This was a really interesting take on the vulnerability of consciousness and the human brain. On one hand our brains are really robust--for example, other areas of the brain can pick up the slack if part of the brain is damaged.
But this same brain that can be so resilient makes mistakes in how it processes information. I can think of a number of times when I was sleep deprived and made numerous errors in how i interpreted the environment around me.
Another example is false memories--how our ability to recall information is not as perfect as we would like. There have been numerous incidents reported of people who recount and adhere to false memories, some as serious as child abuse allegations! These are often the result of coaching from psychotherapist (scary!)