“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” - Joan Didion
Lucidity: Characterized by clear perception or understanding.
Obscurity: Most often deliberate (subconscious to conscious) quality of being difficult to understand.
Cognitive Bias: A systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them
Narrative: A spoken or written account of connected events.
Implied: Suggested but not directly expressed. To include both genuine and disingenuous.
Lucid thinking is the ability to recognize events as they are and experience situations without being controlled by them (and not controlling them). It is having the freedom to achieve understanding and comprehension of the true landscape of people, places, and things. It is liberating.
A child is born lucid, The Oceanic Effect (Freud). Over time, this feeling manifests (evolves) into a story called life. This story is the lens through which each individual interprets (lives) life.
Cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when processing and interpreting the world (stories). Individuals create their own subjective reality from their perception of that input (the stories they tell themselves). Then the story, not the input, dictates their behavior in the world.
Seeking truth and reality begins with you. Lucidity in thought results in a clearer assessment of the story you are telling yourself. Lucidity of thought leads to a more accurate narration of your own story. This clarity also extends to a better understanding of how those around you are narrating their own stories. Decluttering thought leads one closer to reality as opposed to one’s perception/story of the reality.
The Nemeses of Lucid Thought
Lack of Self Awareness
Lucid thoughts require conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives and desires. One who lacks self awareness is unable to think clearly and, regretfully, will most often never realize it.
Emotional Triggers
Thoughts which result from an emotional trigger or a story that is so ingrained in one’s belief system that it has become truth for that person.
Personal Bias
Learned beliefs, opinions, or attitudes create automated, not lucid thinking.
The Objectivity Paradox
Humans are narrators of subjective stories. Even that which is espoused as objective, usually isn’t. Something is objective if it can be confirmed independent of a mind. If a claim is true even when considering it outside the viewpoint of a sentient being, then it may be labeled objectively true.
Perception of Pain
That which creates physical pain or stress diminishes lucid thinking as the mind and body are one.
Sleep Deprivation
One who is sleep deprived has a lessened capacity for thought processing.
“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.” - Sigmund Freud