Repeating an untruth can make it seem true to an unskilled mind. It is becoming a common experience for me to recognize how much I can create my own reality. It is a habit of mind, my thoughts are gate-keepers. It is easy for me to absorb untruths, illusions when I entertain them uncritically.
Repeated untruths become familiar and so they become easier to absorb. The gate-keeper lets down its guard and admits the familiar uncritically. The dimensions of untruths take on all the appearance of reality. A truly discerning mind sees all as uncertain, ambiguous, illusory.
For me this has been true in areas of religion where repeated illusions took on the credibility of being real. It has happened in relationships where familiarity created an illusion or expectation that became my reality. How often I have “seen” or “heard” what I expected or wanted to see and hear. How often have I seen and heard the familiar uncritically, without being attentive and mindful.
I have been tested during this election time. The media has reported so many untruths in uncritical fashion. There have been times that I began to accept untruths as reality. This has been so much of the story of this election, and the reason I stopped paying attention to the news. My ability to critically filter what I heard and read became over-taxed. I became weary and weakened in my ability and desire to repel the attacks of so many illusions. So I put down the paper and turned off the radio.