Do you think that most people believe that the way they were raised, the religion they were assimilated into and the beliefs they were taught, are Right.
How do we even know how we know we are right?
I lived with right knowing for many years.
It never occurred to me to explore the other side.
The beliefs of my childhood - were part of being Me.
I never ever questioned the ones who gave me the beliefs or the religion and its rules.
They just were.
The things implanted as a child and my own childhood interpretation became a file in my mind. It's pathway unquestioned - I just believed it was right.
It is very telling that often religions are implanted into children; an empty malleable mind.
What is implanted in childhood is often hard to unwind - for it absconds with body and mind before the child gets a chance to define itself.
These ideas are actually replacing the self. A child in strict religions are made to meld into the ways of the church - but without a fully formed self - the child becomes the religion.
I don't recall having freewill - I moved as the religion would have moved.
I lived on rote.
I had to look up the definition - "mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition. a joyless sense of order, rote, and commercial hustle."
I had to chuckle at the joyless sense of order....in how aptly it described my early years... sadly.
The rightness of the religion in my mind was partnered with sexual abuse.
But, the sexual abuse wasn't recorded in the files.
My body held these truths.
When the sexual abuse wasn't recorded - my mind didn't see the abuse or act in accordance with it. It never existed - yet it did happen.
As a child downloading the religion and at the same time experiencing childhood sexual assault by my father - my mind files were *&%$ - to put it gently. So not right -not even close.
I truly feel for my younger self living life with a messed up filing system and no real separate self.
She believed she was right and there was no one there to challenge her thoughts or beliefs.
In the religion, we were taught the sinful nature of our bodies. I was never taught to honor my feelings, emotions and instincts.
I separated from my body in sexual abuse as well.
I truly lived disconnected from my body and all its wisdom.
I am not certain I can articulate this.
Just because you believe something to be right, it doesn't mean it is.
"A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority."
Knowing the cost of religion and sexual abuse upon my life and how it impacted the files in my mind, I can understand how others live this way as well. It would be nice if we were all free thinkers and open to curiosity and wonder - but too many of us are locked behind a corrupt mind.
I wondered if corrupt was accurate - here is one definition. "made unreliable by errors or alterations." This is very accurate.
I also understand how scary it would be to know your mind is unreliable when the mind is you. You don't want to know you are unreliable.
I truly was lost when the files in my mind were discovered to be lies. I didn't have a self standing in the wings. I was 46 years old married with 4 kids and I didn't have a clue who I was - outside of the mind's files.
Yet it was the first time I was free to think and ponder and wonder and learn.
It was an exhilarating process to go through the files I called right - to discover the lies and see the world completely different.
I am willing to wager that there are folks on both ends of the spectrum with wrong right files. And, they would be aghast at what they are proclaiming to be right.
Mostly what I know - is that I would not have been convinced otherwise.
Here is a quote I love - "A man convinced against his will - is of the same opinion still " which came from the quote below.
“He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still” from Hudibras by Samuel Butler
What is interesting - is that I misquoted this for years - I thought it was a MIND convinced against its will is of the same opinion still.
Any one of them works.
Knowing this and experiencing life with a closed not right mind - I don't believe we will change minds from the outside in.
I also know the strength of some minds and the steel grip it has on them. My voice and my convincing will fall on deaf ears.
"forgive them, they know not what they do" is one sentiment I can agree upon.
I wrote all that to say, are you sure you are right?
Another quote I love is by Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor - "that the left brain takes the least amount of information and weaves the most plausible story."
Here is her talk - and she has a book "My Stroke of Insight". She explains the parts of our brain and its differences.