Psychological Assessment Research &Treatment Services

The Soul Illusion


The Rodney Dangerfield of philosophical questions:

When a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, is there a  sound? 

It has become the butt of jokes, because it seems to be one of those pointless questions that has no answer. But there is an answer, an answer with profound spiritual and practical implications. 



No, there is no sound!

When the tree falls it produces a series of pressure waves in the surrounding air. The ear drum converts these waves into a mechanical signal which is transmitted by 3 small bones to the fluid filled cochlea - the spiral bony canal of the inner ear. Hair cells of the cochlea are the actual receptors. Each is tuned to a particular frequency of the fluid waves. Hair cell vibrations are converted [transduced] to electrical impulses, and transmitted along the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex where intensity and frequency of the vibrations are mapped. Neither pressure waves, physical movements of body parts [bones, hair], nor electrical signals are sound. What we call sound exists only in the mind of the perceiver. 

Perception differs qualitatively from the physical properties of the stimulus. The nervous system extracts only certain information from the natural world. We perceive fluctuations of air pressure not as pressure waves but as sounds that we hear. We perceive electromagnetic waves of different frequency as colors that we see. We perceive chemical compounds dissolved in air or water as specific smells or tastes. In the words of neurologist Sir John Eccles: "I want you to realize that there exists no color in the natural world, and no sound - nothing of this kind; no textures, no patterns, no beauty, no scent." Sounds, colors, patterns, etc., appear to have an independent reality, yet are, in fact, constructed by the mind. All our experience of the natural world is our minds interpretation of the input it receives. 


State Dependent Perception

Abusing a loved one looks different after anger has given way to regret. In hindsight, the anger was temporary, and its cause trivial. Looking back with regret, the abuser is contrite, and vows never to repeat the hurtful behavior. But the next time the abuser is in an angry state the provocation will not seem trivial, nor will the perspective appear temporary. 

Because perception is a construction of the mind, our biases are invisible, and so we are taken in, and voluntarily behave counter to our own best interests. At the time, the angry person is not aware that his perception is biased by this transient emotional state. His perception: "She is always taking advantage of me!" Later when he appraises the situation from the perspective of a contrite state of mind he wonders, "Why do I always hurt the one I love?" 

Our perception is biased by temporary emotional states. Everything appears different when anger has changed to contrition. Objectively, we can see that both anger and contrition are temporary states of mind that bias our perception. But subjectively, our perception never seems to be biased - the bias is always invisible to us. This gives rise to an illusion which causes great suffering

Just prior to a lapse perception is biased one way, and the lapse appears to be self-serving. Later, local conditions will bias perception differently, and the lapse appears to be self-destructive.


State Dependent Learning and Memory

State Dependent Perception is half the story. Just as emotional states filter input [perception], so they filter output [behavior]. State Dependent Learning is shown in the laboratory by the following observation: Rats who learn to run a maze when drunk perform better when tested drunk than when tested sober. Rats who learn when sober perform better when tested sober. 

Learning is state-bound. That is, what is learned in one state may not generalize well and so may not be available when in a different state. Likewise, memory is state dependent - previous failures are more easily recalled at times when one feels like a failure. As a result feeling like a failure begets future failure, and cliche that "Nothing succeeds like success" has some validity. 

Another name for state of mind is, "trance." The method to influence trance is described at: Hypnosis and Ordinary Trances.


The story of O

During our first session, Mr. O told of repeated self-destructive relapses. After each one he swore: "I've learned my lesson this time, and I will never make that mistake again!" Each time he really meant it, and yet each vow was eventually followed by a lapse, and each lapse by regret. Now, in my office, he is about to do it again. O is not stupid, and is aware of his history. Yet he makes the same mistake again and again. Why?

1) His vow is worthless - although he is genuinely committed to it when he makes it.

2) His appraisal of the costs and benefits of the lapse is different afterwards than it was just before the lapse. 

High risk situations for O include stressors [particularly anger and frustration], and temptation [immediate access to the incentive]. In such situations he appraises the outcome of lapsing to be better than the outcome of not lapsing. This Positive Outcome Expectancy [POE] State sets the occasion for the lapse. Each time O lapses the immediate gratification of consuming the incentive reinforces the lapse behaviors and strengthen Positive Outcome Expectancies. 

Later there there will be a price to pay, but O will be in a different state when he pays it. Then lesson that the lapse was a bad idea is bound to this remorseful state, and is not available the next time O is in a POE state. It is the remorseful O who continues to learn the same lesson, and each time he does, it seems so familiar. Unfortunately, this expensive education has little value because it is not available to O during the critical moments when he is a risk. Likewise, during the remorseful state he will not understand how he could have made the mistake he vowed never to make again, because now the powerful influence of POE states are unavailable to him. 

O behaves counter to his own interests, not because he is intending to hurt himself, but because he is the victim of an illusion which causes him to believe that the lapse will produce a self-serving outcome. During the remorseful phase he is acutely aware of his long and frustrating history of failure. O's demoralizing attribution that his failures are due to personal weakness adds injury to the insult, and only hinders self-determination.

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