Illusions

What is an illusion?  Is an illusion a lie that someone creates to hide the truth from us, or is it a mask that we use to hide from the truths we don’t want to see? Is our first illusion the fact that we choose to hide from truth?

This is a question that I often ask myself.  And I have to say that, yes, in many cases, possibly even most, the first illusion that I don’t want to see the full picture, the full truth of a situation.  However, I also have to acknowledge that I have been taught how to not see the truth in any situation.

Here’s an easy example of how this works:  We go to a magic show to see an illusionist.  His very job description says what he does – he creates illusions.  But why do the illusions work?  Because we want them to.  If we see the truth behind the illusion, then the magic is gone.  There’s no excitement, no joy, no happiness, no fun.  It feels good to see the magic, so we choose to accept the illusion.

Now let’s look at the other side of illusions. We accept an identity (job title, religion denomination, political affiliation), or personal relationship (family, friend).  We know that the other party is not telling us the truth, but because it is not comfortable to face the truth, we choose to ignore it, telling ourselves excuses to avoid the truth at any cost, and often choosing to believe that we are the victims in the process.  In other words, we choose to believe the lie because while the lie doesn’t feel good, it feels better than the truth.

We as individuals are starting to wake up and see the illusions created for us as a society and we are not happy.  However, we are still learning how to deal with the truth.  We need to learn that it is ok for us to forgive ourselves for not wanting to see the illusions.  We can give ourselves permission to accept the truths we didn’t want to see.  Once we do give ourselves permission, and learn to accept the truth, only then can we move forward and heal.