I enjoy poring over optical illusions. It is fun to unravel their mystery and still be able feel the "illusion". The "illusion" can over-ride any facts provided. Its just the way the mind sees it and there is no way of controlling the mind at times. It( the mind) just sees what is wants to.Like tihis picture: The grey bar is the same shade through out. No matter how many times I tell mind that it is so, I still see the gradation. Now just hide the background with your palms and you will see for yourself that is a solid grey bar!
How about illusions in real life and for that that matter dis"illusion"ment? Are there similar things that our mind presents to us how it would like to see them? So is there something like dis"illusion"ment. Can we really look beyond our own mind?
Wikipedia has the following definition for the word:
'''Disillusionment''' refers to a [[feeling]] that arises from the discovery that something is not what it was anticipated to be. Often, disillusionment is much more severe and traumatic than common [[disappointment]], especially when a [[belief]] central to one's identity is shown to be false" Woah!!
Dont you think most of the time when we feel disillusioned we come face to face with a reality that we were already aware of? Its just there is no more running away from it. So is it really disillusionment? Is the covering up of the background to see that it is indeed a grey bar, dis" illusion"ment? Isnt all this a game of words?
I think so.
4 comments:
Nice blog....and yes these are all game of words but have a great meaning in them...
Vinod, lets sit tonight; and help me undersstand your understatement!
;)
Minu,
Nice thoughts.
Literally 'disillusionment' could also mean 'getting rid of an illusion'. Well, I am not sure if illusion is always taken in negative sense.
But, as per the Gita Philosophy, its better we live in reality.
That way Wikipedia is unfair in tagging disillusionment as a manifestation of disappointment.
What do you say?
I agree prashant with your comment on the wikipedia definition. But sadly some word loose the flexibilty in the meaning they can hold due to repetitive use in a particular context.
hey minu- good stuff! very interesting line of thought. my compliments.
At first it sounds like a 'I know you know I know' situation...but if we were to really dissect it, as i am doing because i am curious; first comes(the assumption of) illusion- what we see, or experience and grow accustomed to and develop "security" around etc...then comes (the assumption of)reality that is a condition thats different from the one that provides us security- leading to "disillusionment" that is the subject of this post. its important to understand illusion isnt it? look what wikipedia has to say about that "is a distortion of a sensory perception, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people." For the sake of this discussion, its important to note, that an illusion is not somthing people participate in voluntarily, and the fact that they are "disillusioned";another involuntary phenomena. to someone who cannot read the sub text that describes the optical "illusion" the grey bar in the middle is not uniform. for such people - yes- disillusionment is very real(:D)and owing to the nature of the human psyche(which is incurably optimistic) - often disappointing(or a more intense version of it). but i suppose that disillusionment is the path to the true understanding of "reality". which brings me to another confounding thought; the fact that reality itself changes so much with situation, that it is quite a task, to not give into the comforts of a more constant illusion. to illusion or not to illusion...
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