Stop Imagining The World You Live In

This is a very important topic which I need to discuss first, because I will mention it frequently in other articles.

What Is The Problem?

The core issue I want to explore in this article is how much of our lives are lived within an imagined world. I'll avoid specific examples to keep the discussion general, but to clarify what I mean, this "imagined world" often becomes apparent in conversations when people respond with statements like:

• "Are you saying that all the scientists who study this in laboratories every day are wrong and dumb?"
• "So you think you're smarter than legitimate and established institutions and sources of information?"
• "What about all the people who did X and experienced Y?"
• "What about X, who does Y and is fine?"
• "X will probably happen/is true, since usually..."
• "All these people can't be wrong, therefore..."

When people say those kinds of phrases, at that very second, I can mentally pierce through their skull and into their brain and see right away that there is nothing that stands behind what is being said. People never refer to someone or something specific that they know of, but rather something they imagine to exist and to be true.

Truth to be told, in objective reality there are:

• no scientists,
• no laboratories,
• no every day studying,
• no people who study x,
• no scientific papers which prove y,
• the person who you remember talking about x never even red the scientific paper he/she talked about (happens more times than you might think),
• people who did x probably did not exist
• people who did x probably did different thing altogether for different reason and probably got different outcome

And I'm not suggesting this in a "our universe isn't real" sense, but rather in reference to discussions about specific topics. It's always helpful to think about specifics and be very concrete with your thoughts; otherwise, we can end up living in an imagined world that isn't immediately noticeable, but one day can derail us like a large train and cause significant cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced when holding contradictory beliefs or values, compelling us to reduce that tension. This discomfort arises when reality clashes with our imagined truths, and because our bodies naturally seek to avoid stress, we can effectively brainwash ourselves to maintain comfort and avoid discovering what is real.

It is Not Just You or Your Friend Who Does This

"The Grift Sense" isn't some mental therapy blog where I talk about mental issues a few people might have. As the quote from the very first article, "In the land of the blind, one-eyed man is king," this specific discussion refers to almost everyone out there. Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia, Gary Brecka, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Bryan Johnson, and many more—I've seen these people say so many stupid, nonexistent things that it just baffled me why nobody else seems to notice that their statements are just made-up crap.

Just to give you one specific example: I've seen Gary Brecka posting a short where he stated that a study X found that red light therapy can help reduce atherosclerosis plaque. But when I found the exact study he was referring to and actually read it (what a shocker, I know), I found that it was done on four (4) rabbits that were injected with some chemical treatment in addition to red light exposure. As you might see from a mile away, this has no relation to human beings, no statistical power whatsoever, and the methodology didn't even examine the effects of red light therapy at all, since they also injected those rabbits with some drug and there was no negative control (n=4).

I will talk about how to read scientific studies and the burden of proof needed to say "X reduces atherosclerosis plaque" or something similar in later articles. This article is merely an exposé, a first look into how backward everything around us can be when we consider the concept of imagination.

My Personal Transformation

I, like everyone else, grew up in a modern society and went through a modern education program. As we grow up, each of us picks up stories and widely accepted beliefs that we assume are inherently true because everyone seems to be on the same page. Examples include "sailors died of scurvy," "World War I started because Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated," "there are small, unseen worms in meat," "carrots improve your vision," "X is healthy," "sun tans cause skin cancer," "you need to eat a variety of food to reduce the chance of missing vitamins," and so on.

And referring to the discussion about cognitive dissonance, I've personally struggled to see reality as it is. Sometimes it took me decades, even when I was told the straight truth point-blank, to change my belief system so that I could see reality more clearly and more as it is. Our minds are powerful; they prioritize maintaining a sense of coherence and preserving our well-being over being objectively truthful and seeing the world as it truly is.

I hope this article has offered you some new ideas and perspective on a topic I consider important. Every one of us struggles with fabricating things to keep our worldview coherent. This article is simply a foot in the door for later discussions. I want everyone to be aware of this phenomenon's existence and to be more vigilant about how our brains sway our perception of reality to keep everything smooth.

Thank you for reading.

P.S. I didn't intend to throw shade at people I mentioned in this article. I appreciate some of the contributions they make for the benefit of all of us.