“Our perceptions and worldviews are a part of our makeup, but we must keep our eyes open to see the shifts. People who don’t notice the shift are the ones with primitive outlooks/worldviews because they refuse to adjust/intake knowledge or information that differs from the ones they hold dear.’…

This was a comment made by blogger Cami when we did our last book club discussion last week Thursday, which the topic was the thought provoking paper assigned to us by Blogger YW called Nacirema,.. American spelled back ways. It was truly a brain teaser as we had no Idea that the tribes discussed in the paper was indeed describing Americans, until Yw let us in on the big reveal. There were questions pertaining to the paper and everyone had their own thoughts and ideas of these very crass and weird people described within the paper.

As a spiritualist, I read it looking and searching for the spirituality within them and their culture, as I believe I am awake and as such able to see beyond what “Normal”, people see, I saw nothing but a bunch of dense people whose minds were trapped within a culture without substance or base. I saw no spirituality, none. I became slightly confused about these people who as I read seemed like a bunch of psychopath to me (know that my approach to everything is always objective), and had to read it over when I realized that the author spoke about American (s).

Cami’s comment along with the article itself made me think, and think and think, and I realize,(well I knew it already, but I just never put DEEP thought to it, or wrote on it), that perception,……. perception is very important…..we ought to pay keen attention to our observations, and of course not only view things objectively, but the approach of how we view things it is best to examine things from all angles,  but then with that comes,….. perspective…aha!   With these thoughts, I realize that one views brings you over to another and it becomes a link which if you hold onto the chain and continue, you slowly become awake! Or quickly, depending on who you are and how awake you were already.

This is what has distorted the mind and how human beings function. We are taught to see things the same way, of course education will eliminate some indoctrinated mindset, however religion stills binds the educated man, and although he reasons well and is an academic, he still is boxed in by his mind conditioning through religion or other things which he cannot see beyond which his mind still holds on to. It all boils down to Hoax (I believe, and in my opinion), we are a part of a huge hoax which has clouded our abilities, and until or unless we can remove the scales off our eyes and begin to think for ourselves, see for ourselves, conceptualize our own thoughts from our very own perceptions, ( as oppose to seeing things through the eyes of the world, media or other wise) and build upon that which has been destroyed which is our minds, through whatever medium, we will never be truly awake.

These are my thoughts, please add yours. Yw, has written a brilliant piece which will tickle you and send you off into thought somewhere, I hope. We are so blessed to have him here with us, whenever he choose to stop by. We appreciate you Yw, we all do, and your lovely wife Ty, how blessed of you both to have found each other in a world with so much bad people when put together makes for a terrible couple (me an de duttie baby fadda), two souls of like intelligence and twin like (almost), in personality, it is a rare thing!…So I Obara Meji and with the Ase on which I was given by my mother Osun, the Orisha of Love, family and all sweet and good things bless your love and marriage and family forever..Aseee!!!..

We are blessed for you both being here with us, we thank Orunmial and Osun..Aseee!

Bloggers, today I spoke to our Nunu, and there is nothing wrong with her and she assured me so as I persistently inquired, but I did not like how she sounded, her voice was a little low and normally Nunu is light and upbeat, but I love all you as my own and so we must lift her up in prayers. She is our family, and again let me reiterate, she did not complain or make a bad report to me, but as a spiritualist/traditionalist I know that we need to put her in prayer. So for the next 16 days beginning from today, let us mention her in our prayers, if is even fi sey “God bless Nunu”.

 Please also Add Yazzy to your prayers in the same way as Nunu. We as a collective, if we pray for each other, it will reach, of that I am sure. Iron sharpeneth Iron and the countenance of one brightens the other,  our sweet Nunu needs us now, we must stand up for them, we must! 

Communication

Communication may seem like a simple thing but it really is very complicated. When two people converse there is: speaking, listening, intent of message, and comprehension of message. We are all aware of the talking and listening part but the intent and comprehension parts are a bit more subtle. When we develop a thought in our head we need to convert it into a format to deliver the information we want to the person listening. Simply put we need to put words to our thoughts to convey them to another person. With that part complete the other person then needs to break down the words to get to the thought(s) that you are trying to get to them. Of course, here you can see how misunderstanding can so easily happen.

Many things affect our ability to effectively communicate, especially verbally. Our mood, past experiences, variances in lifestyle/ability to empathize, interest in topic (or person speaking with), and more all play a role in how we deliver and receive information (communicate). Past experiences are a premier facet in how we communicate because that is what dictates (most times) our expectations. If a child is “cowed” down constantly for asking questions, soon they refrain from asking. Okay. From here we will skip on to the concept of perception…

 Perception

Perception is an interesting concept because it has so many parts and permeates so many areas of our lives. It is directly impacted by information we gather and information we already have – slow down here!! Information we gather and information we already have… Hmmmm, information we already have comes from past experiences but information we gather comes in the moment or at the time of. See the conflict? If we are not careful our past experiences will cloud our objectivity to information we may gather in the moment. With this realization we all must look within ourselves to assess and evaluate why we do the things we do. Do our past experiences dictate our behaviours? Do they dictate our thoughts? Are we allowing them to dictate the way we perceive things? That is where the trap lies: religious indoctrination, gender views, expectations in relationships, etc.

Now there are many layers of perception. A good way to think of levels of perception is like vision. Our vision is graded on a scale of 20 – 20/20 being the best. The worse our vision, the more blurry our sight is. Perception is clouded by past experiences. If we need clarity we get lenses to correct or improve our vision. To gain clarity in our perception we must look within and question ourselves. Clarity can only be achieved through self inquiry. This brings us to cognition…

Cognition

To explore the concept of cognition, I think it would be helpful to define certain words or ideas. The reason for this first step is because words may mean different things to different people. The words I would like define are:

Perception – ability to perceive

Perceive – to see or notice, to become aware

Cognition – the faculty of knowing or perceiving things

Cognizant – aware, having knowledge

If we look at the definition of “cognition” we could say that it is our other sense (our sixth sense). However, it is my opinion, that it is a higher sense than our base five because it enhances them. For this post we could look at cognition as an amplifier to our five senses and how that effects our perception of things around us.

When used without cognition our basic five senses tell us of our physical environment. For example: when we enter nature, we see the trees, the sun, the earth, etc.; we feel the wind and sun; we smell whatever scents we can in the air; we may taste certain smells on the air; and we may hear various sounds from the outdoors. Now, we also do the same when we interact with people. We notice their voice, their appearance, maybe the way they dress, maybe their smell (perfume/cologne), etc. Why is this important? What does this have to do with spirituality?

Okay. Before we answer those questions let us add one level of cognition to the five senses in our above mentioned nature example… when we enter nature, we see the trees swaying, smell moisture in the air and note the grayness of some clouds. From that we conclude that it may rain. Now, let us amplify cognition when meeting someone: We look at their posture, their body language (hints to emotion/mood of person), tone of voice (again mood hint), intention in eyes (key), use of words (hints to innuendos), etc.

Here is where it gets a bit tricky because most of us are at different levels of cognition. If you believe that we have a higher self, then cognition is the sensory faculty of our higher self. This means that to get in touch with our true self, or our spiritual self, we must develop our cognitive skills because our cognitive level determines the depth of things we can perceive. Put another way: like ogres, many things are like an onion – they have layers (from Shrek part 1). As we develop our cognitive abilities, we are able to peel back more and more layers until, hopefully, we get to the core i.e. truth. Hopefully this answers the questions asked earlier.

If cognition is a sense of our higher self (or our spiritual self), then increasing our cognition would open us up to perceive things on and of a spiritual nature. That may be a reason behind some people being able to “see” auras, ghosts, spirits, future, past, etc. Like our basic sense of sight, our sense of cognition can be blurred which would hinder our ability to perceive. I believe that our experiences on this material plane may serve to cloud our cognitive skills because, as mentioned earlier, perception is linked with past experiences and thereby memory. This brings us to memory…

What can you take away from this post? Well, you would have to discuss that with yourself. My suggestion would be to do so in a quiet, private place where your sanity will not come into question (this brings us to meditation). As a side note, the previous paragraph ends with a sentence to show that every thought can be linked. One thought can lead to another and another and another – as far as you are willing to take it….

Orúkọ rere sàn ju wúrà àti fàdákà lọ. /
A good name is better than gold and silver…….Yoruba Proverb! 

[Pursue a good name; it is priceless.]

All religions are valid as long as it teaches peace and love…..Obara Meji!

There are no disappointments in life, only lessons learned…..Obara Meji!

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

Aldous Huxley

Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.

Jon Bon Jovi

Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.

Edward de Bono

Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you.

Deepak Chopra

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you’re needed by someone.

Martina Navratilova