Seung-Hui Cho and the Power of Perception
THIS IS NOT A PIPE!
It is a picture of a pipe. It is not a pipe. "PERCEPTION ALWAYS INTERCEDES BETWEEN REALITY AND OURSELVES," according to René Magritte.
surrealistThe Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte illustrated the concept of "perception always intercedes between reality and ourselves"[2] in a number of paintings including a famous work entitled The Treachery of Images, which consists of a drawing of a pipe with the caption, Ceci n’est pas une pipe ("This is not a pipe").
My association of René Magritte’s painting of a pipe and Seung-Hui Cho’s senseless murders at Virginia Tech is not motivated to minimize the atrocities committed by Seung-Hui Cho or to be insensitive to the families and friends who are experiencing unimaginable loss and grief.
The media has saturated us with national concerns regarding protecting our society from the violent, mentally ill and reopened the issue of gun control. There is no doubt that these are important issues for our society to debate.
It is important for us not to dismiss Cho’s thinking and behavior as only due to mental illness. Painfully, Cho has shown us the power of perception.
Is there anything we can learn from Cho’s thinking and rampage? What is important for all of us to learn about reality and perception?
Cho’s perception and thinking were reported by MSNBC reporter, Kari Huus’s article, Can Cho’s Writings be Dissected.
1. Our perception of reality is not reality. Seung-Hui Cho’s perception of reality was not reality. Our perceptions and thinking about reality create an image of the world in our mind. Our beliefs about our world and ourselves are subjective and not objective reality.
Neurolinguistic programming emphasizes the separation and differences between objective reality and our subjective perceptions of reality. According to Wikipedia:
"NLP epistemology" follows Alfred Korzybski (1933) and Gregoy Bateson’’s (1972, 1979) postulations that there is no such thing as "objective experience." The subjective nature of our experience never fully captures the objective world. In the view of NLP, whether or not there is an objective absolute "reality", individual people in fact do not in general have access to absolute knowledge of reality, but in fact only have access to a set of beliefs they have built up over time, about reality.
Significance - It is considered crucially important when working with people to focus on the understanding that their beliefs about reality and their awareness of things (the "map") are not reality itself or everything they could be aware of ("the territory"). Put another way, NLP does not claim that one is working with reality, ie the "territory", but only with peoples subjective perceptions and beliefs about reality, ie some or other "map".
2. Our perceptions of reality are believed to be real. Cho is not alone in thinking that his perceptions are reality. Don’t we all believe our perception are real? According to Wikipedia:
NLP calls each individual’s perception of the world their ‘map’. NLP teaches that our mind-body (neuro) and what we say (language) all interact together to form our perceptions of the world, or maps (programming). Each person’s map of the world determines feelings and behavior. Therefore, impoverished - and unrealistic - maps can restrict choices and result in problems. As an approach to personal development or therapy it involves understanding that people create their own internal ‘map’ or world, recognizing unhelpful or destructive patterns of thinking based on impoverished maps of the world, then modifying or replacing these patterns with more useful or helpful ones
3. Our perceptions of reality are often wrong, but still feel right. Most people would agree that Cho’s perceptions were wrong, distorted and warped. Our perceptions always pale in regard to the brilliance of reality. Also, our perceptions distort reality, because of our past memories, thoughts, feelings and relationships. The world created in our mind limits us and can lead to significant misperception.
4. Our perceptions are powerful. Even though our perceptions are not an objective assessment of reality, our perceptions are powerful. Our perceptions are powerful, even when our perceptions are wrong. Cho’s violent rampage shows the power of perception. Perceptions are powerful in determining our behavior. Perceptions determine how we relate to others. Our perceptions create reality for ourselves and others.
I hope we can learn from Cho that our perceptions are not reality. If only Cho would have realized his perception of his world was wrong and not reality.
Our perceptions can lead to devastation and abundance in our lives and world. If your perceptions could have devastating effects on your life or others, challenge and change your perceptions and your perception of the world in your mind.
Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
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